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4th November 2008
There are many issues with the way Aoun and HA are dealing with FM's base, and especially its largest part, the Sunnis.
On one hand, the "opposition" speaks of national unity and that the current struggle is a political one and not a sectarian one, and on the other you see behaviors like:
- Aoun's "train back on track" after the clashes in Beirut.
- Aoun's consistent sectarian speech which from time to time he tries to embellish by saying that it is not targeted against Sunnis whereas the concerned people's perception of the speech is completely different.
- HA's weapons that continue to be a problem for Lebanese who are not politically appealed by HA's political course and by non-Shiite sectarians who fear that a Shiite party has more weapons than they do.
Regarding the last point, and since the MoU, HA has miserably failed in showing any sign of good will with regards to its weapons. I'm not sure what exactly would've turned out of the dialogue charade hadn't been interrupted by that event or whether that event was purposely timed to cut short the charade remains an interesting question to answer.
For any real rapprochement to happen between any of these parties, tensions must cool down, and political divergences have to become about issues and not sects. All parties have the duty to raise their bar to a level where they discuss issues and not sects. Most (All?) of them are not willing to do that now, not before the elections. |