Lebanon has lately witnessed more calls for safeguarding the Taef Accord and for protecting the country from attempts to insert Lebanon in the “resistance axis” amid already complicated regional developments.
Those calls were mainly discussed during Monday’s meeting in Jeddah of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz with Lebanese former Prime Ministers Najib Mikati, Fouad Saniora and Tammam Salam.
King Salman stressed this week that Saudi Arabia is keen on Lebanon’s security and stability and the need to keep it within the Arab fold.
Last week, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Lebanese politicians have been holding consultations to establish a specialized council to put a stop to constant violations of the Taef Accord.
“The Taef era ended a long time ago. Unfortunately, we can only be sorry about the situation we have reached in Lebanon and work on preventing the collapse of what is left of the country,” former minister Butros Harb told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Harb said that one of the reasons that led to the collapse of the Taef Accord is the presence of an armed political party outside the rule of the state.
“This party uses its surplus power to enforce its political opinion. What (Hezbollah) wants should pass and what the party does not like should not be accepted,” Harb explained.
For his part, former Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said the political settlement that led to the election of General Michel Aoun as president is the step that virtually eliminated the Taef.
However, Rifi is convinced about the possibility of protecting the Taef through steps leading to the establishment of an opposition front with an aim to protect the identity and Arabism of Lebanon and to decrease the influence of Iran, which does not care about the interests of the Arab world.
