Salam says decisions of war and peace can't be taken outside state institutions
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Wednesday that the Taif Agreement “focused on the importance of extending state authority over all of its territory using its own inherent forces,” stressing that this is “the baseline without which no true state can emerge.”
“Taif did not separate political reform from the restoration of state authority, the dissolution of militias, and the restriction of legitimate force exclusively to state institutions," said Salam at a ceremony marking the centenary of the Lebanese constitution.
"Popular sovereignty has no meaning if sources of authority proliferate outside the institutions that represent the people. A state of law has no meaning if the law does not apply to everyone, and state sovereignty remains incomplete if sovereign decisions -- such as decisions of war, peace and national security -- are taken outside its constitutional institutions," the premier added.
"Did we actually implement Taif, or did we only implement the parts that redistributed power while postponing what was supposed to develop the state? We enshrined parity between Christians and Muslims, yet we never established the Senate; we declared that abolishing political sectarianism is a national goal, but we never set out a practical path to achieve it; and we spoke of decentralization, yet it remained a postponed project," Salam lamented.
Source: Naharnet
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