On
Lebanon,
France Speaks
First But
Defers on
Army's
Qahwaji,
Limbo
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
10 -- After
the UN
Security
Council
adopted a
Presidential
Statement on
Lebanon, it
was French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
who came out
to talk about
it Wednesday
morning,
before his
Lebanese
counterpart
Nawaf Salam.
Inner
City Press
asked Araud
about the
limbo
surrounding
Lebanese Army
chief Jean
Qahwaji. He
has reached
60, the
retirement
age. Nabih
Berri is
trying to hold
a
parliamentary
session from
July 16-18 to
get an
extension and
other things
done. But
Najib Miqati
says it
can't be done.
US
Deputy
Secretary of
State William
Burns has
raised the
matter; the
UN's said to
be concerned
to given the
need for its
UNIFIL mission
to
coordinate
with the
Lebanese Army.
But Araud said
he wouldn't
answer,
calling it a
question of
Lebanese
sovereignty.
Sometimes that
matters,
apparently.
Sometimes.
Inner City
Press' second
question to
Araud, he said
was a question
for legal
experts and
he'd revert.
We'll be
writing on
this soon.
When
Nawaf Salam
took to the
microphone,
Inner City
Press asked
him about
Jean Qahwaji.
He too
declined to
answer, saying
it's a matter
of
political
debate and
that he is a
part of the
debate. He is
an
author,
too, as we've
covered in the
past.
Tuesday,
Nawaf
Salam said the
number of
refugees from
Syria is over
a million,
as high as 1.2
million. He
said they
receive better
hospitality
“in
the community”
than in camps,
and that while
some countries
have
been very
supportive
financially,
the
international
community...
He
paused, and
managed to
say, with this
hands, that
the
international
community's
support is not
as big as the
need. But what
about Jean
Qahwaji? Watch
this site.
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