Local TV channel LBC presenter Mario Abboud hosts MP Samy Gemayel on Thursday. (Screenshot from LBC's broadcast video)
BEIRUT – MP Samy Gemayel, head of the Kataeb Party, described on Thursday Parliament's recommendations to the caretaker cabinet over the EU’s 1 billion euro grant to Lebanon as "worthless and lack real effect on the ground."
He made his comments during the talk show "Jadal" with presenter Mario Abboud on local TV channel LBC.
Parliament convened on Wednesday to address the 1 billion euro donation from the European Commission and the status of Syrian migrants and refugees. Parliament agreed on key recommendations, including the formation of a ministerial committee led by the Prime Minister to devise a plan for refugee return, urging international support for bolstering border security and facilitating refugee repatriation.
"We did not understand the significance of yesterday’s Parliament session, but we attended it because of the importance of its subject," Gemayel said. "But its recommendations are worthless and lack real effect on the ground."
Gemayel also noted that "many blocs" did not participate in devising Parliament's recommendations during Wednesday's session.
The recommendations were drafted on the eve of the parliamentary session, during a meeting held in Parliament between representatives of various blocs, with the exception of several opposition parties, including Kataeb.
"We did not understand the criteria of recommendations ... entire blocs representing a large part of Parliament did not participate in discussing or deciding on the recommendations," the MP added.
The 1 billion euro aid package was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Lebanon on May 2.
The EU's announcement received significant criticism from political parties and the public, accusing the EU of attempting to "bribe" Lebanese authorities into keeping Syrians in Lebanon so as to prevent their migration to Europe. The parliamentary session was planned with the aim of unifying Lebanon's approach, particularly ahead of the Brussels summit on Syria scheduled for May 27.
During the talk show yesterday, Gemayel also accused Hezbollah of preventing the deportation of Syrian refugees, in what he described as a "requirement" to tackle the refugees "crisis."
Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah "wants to leave the crisis in Lebanon in order to press toward liberating Syria from its siege."
"He is putting pressure on Europe, the West, and Lebanon in order for everyone to surrender on the issue of Bashar al-Assad, with the aim of lifting sanctions off him," Gemayel said. "He is using Lebanon, the Lebanese people, and the Syrian people present in Lebanon as a political pressure card to serve him, Syria, and Iran, and this is the truth."
During his speech on May 14, Nasrallah called on Lebanon to take the "courageous decision" of opening access to the sea to Syrians wishing to travel to Europe, in order to put pressure on the international community. "We never said that Syrians should be forced to get on a boat and leave. But allow them to leave legally, by passing a national law that says: 'The sea is open! Leave, you have the right!" he pleaded. "If we do that, it's no longer a billion that the EU will give us; it's 20 billion, 30 billion."
'Hezbollah is defending Gaza, not Lebanon'
Commenting on the war raging in Lebanon's south since Oct. 8 between Israel on one side and Hezbollah and several Palestinian factions on the other, Gemayel said, "We are a country under hegemony and our decision is occupied by Hezbollah, which holds Lebanon hostage in the decision of peace and war."
"Officials do not have the right to call a meeting to discuss what is happening inside their country while the war is ongoing."
Hezbollah and Israel have been steadily engaged in hostilities on Lebanon’s southern border, fueling fears among its inhabitants and raising the prospect of a full-on war between the two, which would be devastating for the region. Israeli strikes have so far killed 61 civilians, 19 medics, 3 journalists, and hundreds of fighters, as per L'Orient Today's count.
"Hezbollah is defending Gaza, not Lebanon," Gemayel said. "It has opened a support front to stand by Gaza and has involved Lebanon in a long, broad war in the service of other people, and this is what it is doing with the issue of refugees, that is, it is implicating Lebanon, the Shiite people, the Sunni people, the Christian people, and the Druze people in a long and broad problem in the service of the Syrian regime."