Lebanon’s Speaker Nabih Berri criticized the sectarian rhetoric used by some candidates in electoral campaigns.
During a meeting with a student delegation from the Sidon Evangelical School, Berri stressed that leaders who speak and trade in sectarianism were not believers, whether they were Muslims or Christians, “because the true believer renounces sectarianism.”
Asked about his opinion on the electoral law based on the proportional system, Berri emphasized that the best proportional system was that which provided true partnership, through a system based on Lebanon as a single constituency.
“The current law, if it remains unchanged, has very dangerous repercussions on Lebanon,” he said, underlining the need for a ministry of planning in the next stage to achieve reforms and fight corruption.
On a different note, Berri warned of the “the serious repercussions that may result from any military action targeting Syria.”
He expressed his fear that the first victims of such an action would be the stability and unity of the region, “not to mention the bloodshed, destruction and displacement of the brotherly Syrian people.”
However, the speaker said he was not worried about Lebanon, “which cannot live without coexistence among all its sects in a single national melting pot.”
“I am confident that no one will be able to drag the new parliament into any other project,” he said.
