Latest news with #JebranBassil
Nahar Net
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Bassil says supports state, presidency against any 'militia'
by Naharnet Newsdesk 14 April 2025, 13:00 Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said his party supports the state against any "militia", as President Joseph Aoun renewed his appeal for Hezbollah to lay down its weapons. "We have never been and we will never be a militia," Bassil said Sunday, adding that his party supports the state, the Lebanese army, the presidency, and all constitutional and legitimate institutions against any militia. "When the state fails, when the militias win, we go back to war," he said in a speech marking the anniversary of the outbreak of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. The FPM was against the election of President Aoun and withheld confidence from PM Nawaf Salam's government. In its ministerial statement, the government also said that the Lebanese state should be the sole bearer of arms. Bassil called Sunday for reforms, distancing Lebanon from regional conflicts, and protecting it. "Resisting the occupation is a right but it is necessary to build a state that protects the country," he said. A source close to Hezbollah had said that most military sites belonging to the group in southern Lebanon have been placed under Lebanese Army control. A November 27 ceasefire that ended more than a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war, stipulated that only United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon's army should be deployed in the south. The deal required Hezbollah to dismantle its remaining military infrastructure in the south and move its fighters north of the Litani River.
Nahar Net
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Bassil: Abolition of political sectarianism is an elimination of Lebanon's Christians
by Naharnet Newsdesk 17 March 2025, 12:54 Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that the FPM supports the abolition of sectarianism, 'but not political sectarianism alone.' 'We are seculars, so come to comprehensive secularism! As for your selectivity in abolishing sectarianism in politics and leaving it in all other aspects of life, we will reject that,' Bassil added, in a speech at the FPM's annual convention. 'This is not an abolition of political sectarianism, but rather an elimination of the Christian community in Lebanon, and we will confront it, the same as we confront any attempt to eliminate any other component in the country,' Bassil went on to say. Warning against 'tampering with the components, constitution, National Pact and raison d'être of this country,' Bassil warned that the FPM is willing to stage a 'revolution' to prevent such an attempt. 'Harming balanced representation in the country and in the electoral law is not acceptable, and the attempt to approve two preferential votes (in the electoral law) to favor a numerical majority over a numerical minority is rejected,' the FPM chief warned. As for the thorny issue of Hezbollah's arms, Bassil called for addressing the matter in a 'sovereign and responsible manner,' saying the state 'should benefit from these arms so that it be able to defend Lebanon and protect it through a decision of war and peace that it possesses.' 'We oppose removing weapons through a civil war instead of an agreement, even if it is imposed, and we oppose an imposed normalization (with Israel) without rights, instead of it being a just peace with rights,' Bassil added.
Nahar Net
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Bassil says no religion allows 'bloodbath', calls for unity in Lebanon and Syria
by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 March 2025, 15:36 Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has described the recent widespread clashes across Syria's coastal region, during which hundreds of civilians were killed, as a great danger not just to Syria "but to Lebanon as well." Bassil warned Sunday night against divisions in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Jordan and called for unity in the region's countries, praising the level of awareness of Tripoli's residents. Reports that a Syrian minor was stabbed by a Jabal Mohsen resident had sparked tensions and gunfire in Tripoli on Saturday night but calm later returned to the city and tensions were contained. "People in Lebanon protect each other, it's what the Lebanese did during the Israeli war on Lebanon despite all the political disagreements. It is our duty, in the Free Patriotic Movement, to bring people closer to each other at a time when strife is brewing in the region," Bassil said, adding that there are "hidden hands" inciting and dividing, and that these hands can only be confronted with "the awareness of the people." Bassil later posted on the X platform that no religion allows "the terrible crimes" happening in Syria and urged all countries to "stop the bloodbath." "The loss of diversity in Syria is a loss of diversity in Lebanon," Bassil said.
Nahar Net
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Bassil calls for fully abolishing sectarianism, not only in politics
by Naharnet Newsdesk 5 hours Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has addressed Prime Minister Nawaf Salam by saying that 'broad administrative decentralization should be also financial or it cannot exist.' Separately, he said in the same X post that 'the constitution stipulated that the mission of the National Commission (for the Abolition of Political Sectarianism) would be proposing methods to fully abolish sectarianism.' 'Exclusively abolishing political sectarianism would stand for the hegemony of the numerical majority over the minority,' he warned. He added: 'To all Lebanese I say: They all granted the government their confidence and only the FPM has become the opposition.'
Nahar Net
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Bassil declares 'positive opposition', accuses Salam of misrepresenting Christians
by Naharnet Newsdesk 12 February 2025, 13:12 Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has announced that the FPM will practice 'positive opposition' in the face of the new government, noting that it will follow up on a number of files it had 'struggled' for. Wishing success for the new ministers, Bassil lamented that the FPM 'faced an internal and external siege' that 'prevented it from implementing' its plans during Michel Aoun's presidential term. 'It paid the price for preserving national unity and refraining from plunging the country into civil war,' Bassil said. Bassil also accused Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of 'selectivity' in picking the ministers of the new government and of misrepresenting Christians in the cabinet line-up. 'The Shiite Duo named the Shiite ministers, the Progressive Socialist Party named the Druze ministers and the PM named the Sunni ministers, although the representative Christian forces were excluded … As for Christians, the Lebanese Forces named one or at most two ministers, the Tashnag Party named one partisan minister, the Kataeb Party named one minister after an agreement, while four out of the eight remaining Christians ministers were named by the premier,' Bassil decried. The FPM chief also objected against the nature of the ministerial portfolios that were allocated to Christians. 'There was a bad distribution of portfolios in a manner that reflected great injustice against Christians,' Bassil said, adding that 'Muslims obtained five medium-caliber portfolios compared to one given to Christians, whereas Christians got five light-caliber portfolios compared to one alloted to Muslims.' 'Shiites named politicians or politicized ministers, Druze named their people and the premier named politicians and politicized figures, whereas Christians were prohibited from naming a single minister suspected of having a political belonging, except for one that went to Tashnag with the aim of political harm,' the FPM chief added.
