BEIRUT (AFP) Lebanon’s parliament on Friday started to debate a policy statement drawn up by the new unity government and focused on the thorny issue of Hezbollah’s arms, in only its second session in 22 months. A vote of confidence next week that would officially install the government.
Negotiations on the policy statement have been hampered by disputes on the key issue of the arsenal of the Shiite militant movement Hezbollah, which has continued to insist on the “right to resist” Israel.
The statement itself insists on “the right of Lebanon, its people, its army and its resistance to liberate its land” that is occupied by Israel.
Controversy in Lebanon over Hezbollah’s weapons intensified after its militants captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid in July 2006 that sparked a devastating 34-day war.
It boiled over again when Hezbollah led an armed takeover of large swathes of predominantly Sunni west Beirut in fierce fighting in May that killed 65 people and sparked fears of all-out civil war.
The Syrian-backed opposition, with 11 ministers, has the power of veto in the new 30-member cabinet under a May 21 accord struck in Doha that allowed MPs to elect a new president.
The vote to fill a six-month presidential vacuum came after a protracted political crisis which prevented the parliament from holding a session.
Israel says the government gave in to Hezbollah by allowing it to use armed force against the Jewish state, although the ruling Western-backed majority in parliament wants decisions over war or peace to be restricted to the state.
