Mikati: Not Embarrassed To Defend Hizbullah, Cyprus Ready To Implement Maritime Borders

Local Editor

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati affirmed Saturday that parliamentary elections will be held on its time.

In an interview with "as-Safir" Lebanese daily, Mikati defended the proportional electoral law of medium constituencies that the government had sent to the Parliament.
"We have worked hard on the medium constituencies," he said and pointed out that " if the parliament decides to re-examine it, this is part of parliament's competences and it is free to act as it best deems fit."

Mikati, who is expected to arrive in Beirut Saturday, ruled out a political crisis out of "March 14" and MP Walid Jumblatt's refusal to the government's electoral law.

"Procedures will take their normal track, and House Speaker Nabih Berri is making the necessary contacts in order to get some kind of consensus on this issue," Mikati informed "as-Safir".
Asked if he raised the issue of the Lebanese hostages in Syria during his meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in New York, he replied: "We are following this issue calmly and deliberately."

"We have tackled the issue of kidnapped Lebanese with Davutoglu who promised us with good results," the PM unveiled and hoped that "God willing, the new negotiations will lead to the liberation of all hostages."
In parallel, Mikati revealed that during his meeting with the Cypriot president Demetris Christofias, the Cypriot side showed positive response with regards to the maritime border.

"The Cypriot point of view is that Cyprus has signed an agreement with Lebanon and asked for its ratification but we haven't done that so far," he said.

"We will seek to send this agreement to parliament for ratification as soon as possible," the PM stressed and pointed out that "the Cypriot president informed me that he is ready for the immediate implementation of the agreement with Lebanon as soon as it is ratified."

Mikati also responded to the comments that his defense of Hizbullah embarrassed him in front of the Western countries, especially by saying that the party "behaves in a rational way".

"This is the reality, and I am not embarrassed to mention this. I think that the Western countries also appreciate Hizbullah's current stance," he concluded.

Source: as-Safir, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org