Sources: March 14 Conditions Came over Syrian Attempts to Ignite Strife
The request of the March 14 forces for the formation of a neutral salvation government during a conference held on Thursday came after three weeks of preparations when the opposition discovered that the Syrian regime is preparing to ignite tension in Lebanon, high-ranking March 14 sources said Friday.
“The preparation for the meeting began around three weeks ago when it became clear that the Syrian regime had decided that the decision of steering Lebanon clear (of the crisis in Syria) was over and that this regime was preparing something for Lebanon,” sources told An Nahar daily.
“Then (the situation) exploded in Tripoli and Speaker Nabih Berri suggested holding dialogue,” they said, adding that “there was already a plan to picture the North as (an area) under the control of terrorists and the al-Qaida network.”
A letter delivered by the Syrian ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, to the U.N. came as “a crucial point which stressed the importance of bringing the cabinet down after it became clear that it is a follower of the Syrian regime over its failure to draft an official response to this letter,” the sources told An Nahar.
Al-Jaafari accused in his letter al-Mustaqbal movement, al-Qaida and Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood of involvement in arms smuggling between Lebanon and Syria.
The opposition March 14 forces held a conference at Center House on Thursday, during which they called for the formation of a neutral salvation government to replace the cabinet of Premier Najib Miqati.
The coalition accused Syria of instigating the recent deadly clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian regime gunmen in the northern port city of Tripoli and Beirut’s Tariq al-Jedideh neighborhood.
It also conditioned the resumption of National Dialogue on attempts to resolve the issue of “all the weapons outside the state’s jurisdiction.”
March 14 MPs reiterated on Friday that a neutral government should preserve stability in the country.
“We need a cabinet that would implement the decisions of the National Dialogue which we were the first to call for,” MP Ahmed Fatfat told Voice of Lebanon (93.3).
Lawmaker Ghazi Youssef also told VDL (100.5) “we have a single demand.”
“This government is incapable of confronting daily issues that’s why it should be dissolved,” he said.
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