After the renewal of his mandate President Lahoud: â^À^ØYour support, an
additional responsibility for meâ^À^Ù
Monday Morning headlines/lb
13 Sept 04
It was a parade of well-wishers led by the speaker of Parliament, Nabih
Berri, who went to Baabda Palace to transmit to the president the good news
that
Article 49 of the Constitution had been amended by Parliament to allow an
extension of the presidential term.
Standing during four consecutive hours, President Lahoud received the
congratulations of the countryâ^À^Ùs notables and of ordinary citizens, who had
come to
tell him their social and economic difficulties and hope that conditions would
improve. The president was open to all of them, listening attentively to what
they had to say.
The popular delegations, men, women, children and personalities who went to
the palace did not do so in order to fill the â^À^Ügapâ^À^Ý left by the MPs of
the
opposition — the Democratic Gathering of Walid Jumblatt, Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri and his parliamentary bloc, and the opposition Maronite MPs.
Congratulations
Coming from all parts of the country, the well-wishers were pleasantly
surprised at not being searched at the entrance, according to the usual
practice,
and this on the instructions of the president.
Michel Murr, in the first rank of the loyalists, was one of the first to
shake the presidentâ^À^Ùs hand as he led a delegation from the North Metn,
followed by
his daughter, Mirna Abou-Sharaf, and his son, Elias Murr, the interior
minister.
Also seen at Baabda: former Prime Minister Salim Hoss, ministers Michel
Samaha, Asaad Diab, Karim Pakradouni, Karam Karam, Samir Jisr, Assem Kanso,
Elias
Skaff, Michel Moussa, Ali Hassan Khalil, Sebouh Hovnanian, Bahij Tabbara, Ali
Hassan Abdallah.
Among the MPs, we cite the names of Ali Osseiran, Samir Azar, Ali Khalil,
Wajih Baarini, Abdellatif Zein, Anwar Khalil, Antoine Khoury, Salim Saadé,
Ghassan Ashkar, Hagop Kassarjian, Saleh Kheir, Kassem Hashem, Yassin Jaber,
Nicolas
Fattoush, Sami Khatib, Ali Bazzi, Robert Ghanem, Mohammad Yahya, Faisal Daoud,
Jamal Ismaïl, Kabalan Issa el-Khoury, Gebran Tok, Mohsen Dalloul, Mohammad
Ali el-Meiss, Emile Emile Lahoud, a delegation of the Bloc of Fidelity to the
Resistance led by MP Mohammad Raad and including MPs Ali Ammar, Mohammad
Berjawi, Ibrahim Bayan, Hussein el-Hajj Hassan, Georges Najm, Nazih Mansour and
Massoud el-Hojeiri; as well as MP Antoine Haddad leading a group from the
League of
the Haddad Family.
Former ministers and former MPs were not absent from the gathering, such as
Georges Corm, Samir Mokbel, Sleiman Traboulsi, Shahé Barsoumian, Fawzi
Hobeish,
Nazih Baydoun…
Political parties were also represented: the Baath, Tadamon, Tashnak, Amal,
Kataeb, PSS, Christian Democratic, Arab Progressive, the Cénacle Populaire
Libanais and a Palestinian delegation led by Ossama Hamdan, head of Hamas in
Lebanon, leading a delegation of the movement.
Among the spiritual figures were the Syriac Catholic patriarch, Mar Ignatius
Peter VIII Abdelahad, leading a delegation of prelates of the community; Mgr.
Kegham Khacherian and a delegation of the Armenian Orthodox community; the
Greek Catholic bishops Youssef Kallas and André Haddad; Mgr. Georges Saliba,
Greek Orthodox bishop of Mount Lebanon; the Rev. Salim Sahyoun, president of
the
Evangelical Council of Lebanon and Syria.
Then too, a delegation of sheikhs from Tripoli and Akkar, in North Lebanon,
led by Sheikh Taha Sabounji, mufti of Tripoli and the North, and a delegation
of Druze sheikhs.
There were also congratulations from mayors and local government officials,
trade unionists, presidents and members of orders of liberal professions,
diplomats, judges, senior officials…
Presidential speech
Addressing thousands of people who had come to wish him well, President
Lahoud thanked them for their good will. â^À^ÜThis affectionâ^À^Ý, he said,
â^À^Üplaces an
additional responsibility on my shoulders, that of being up to your hopes and
aspirationsâ^À^Ý. He then called for national reconciliation and the
participation of
all Lebanese in the achievement of the countryâ^À^Ùs sovereignty and
independence, giving priority to the political dialogue â^À^Üso that all sides
will be able to
understand the essential problemsâ^À^Ý.