De Freige: President Will be Surprised at Cabinet Session Content Held over Servicemen
Al-Mustaqbal lawmaker Nabil De Freige said on Saturday that shall the minutes of a government session held during the term of ex-PM Tammam Salam about the slain servicemen be declassified, “President Michel Aoun will be surprised by the content of the recordings.”
De Freige, in an interview to VDL (93.3), has called for declassifying the content of said government session, “President Michel Aoun will be the first person to be surprised by the content of the recording,” said the MP.
Aoun had accused Salam of ”ambiguity” on the need to liberate the troops and policemen abducted by the IS during the 2014 battles.
On Thursday, Aoun had called on authorities to probe the 2014 abduction of around 30 troops and policemen during clashes that were fought in and around the eastern border town of Arsal.
For his part, Salam affirmed Aoun's request to launch a probe and has also called for declassifying the session's content.
Salam reasoned:”Our stance in the government of national interest... was not ambiguous at all and was rather clear as the sun on the need to exert efforts to liberate the captive servicemen with all available means, while showing keenness on the lives of the residents of the dear town of Arsal, in order to preserve stability and protect civil peace – in the Bekaa in particular and in Lebanon in general.”
The president's move came after Lebanon recovered the bodies of nine troops who were kidnapped by IS in 2014 before being eventually executed.
The fate of the soldiers was unveiled as part of a Hizbullah-led ceasefire agreement with IS that followed separate but simultaneous offensives by the Lebanese army and Hizbullah and the Syrian army on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border.
Hizbullah, the Free Patriotic Movement and some of their allies have pinned the blame for the abduction of the servicemen on Tammam Salam's 2014 government, former army chief General Jean Qahwaji and al-Mustaqbal Movement, accusing them of preventing the army from continuing a military operation against IS and al-Nusra Front.
Hizbullah, meanwhile, has been accused of facilitating a smooth withdrawal “in air-conditioned buses” for the IS militants who surrendered during last month's border battles.
Source: Naharnet
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