Head of the Maronite church Bechara al-Rai during his Sunday sermon on June 23, 2024. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Head of the Maronite church Bechara al-Rai on Sunday warned of the dangers of "a vacancy at the Military Academy," for a second year, as well as the prolonging of the presidential vacancy, the state-run National News Agency reported.
"For the second consecutive year, there will be no students enrolling to become the future continuity of the army, the Internal Security Forces, General Security, State Security and Customs," Rai said.
Blaming political disagreements for the failure to proceed with enrolments, Rai said, "It is our duty to appeal to those concerned and the government to expedite resolving this issue so that the youth do not pay the price for political disagreements. Our continuous call to the youth is to join the state and be its sons and protectors. But how can we call our youth to the state when the state closes its doors in their faces? We trust the officials and call on them to quickly find a solution to open the doors of the Military Academy so that we do not face a second vacancy that is no less dangerous than the first one."
"We always call on the youth to join the state, but how can we invite the youth to join it when it closes its doors to them?" the patriarch emphasized.
The delay in selecting new recruits to the Military Academy is attributed to ongoing disagreements between caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim and Army chief Joseph Aoun over the selection criteria for entry to the academy.
Choosing new recruits falls within the jurisdiction of the military council, which is the army’s decision-making body and is chaired Aoun. However, Lebanon's caretaker defense minister has objected to the process for choosing recruits, saying it does “not comply with the required criteria.”
Presidential vacancy amounts to 'political assassination of the consensual system'
"We have always warned against the continued vacancy in the presidency, as it amounts to a political assassination of the consensual system," Rai said noting that "the president of the republic is the one authorized to demand the implementation of international decisions."
"We considered the failure to call for elections a national mistake and tantamount to a political assassination of the consensual system we adhere to, the country's conditions cannot bear any delay, whatever the reasons may be," Rai concluded.
Lebanon has been without a president since October 2022. A caretaker government has been running its affairs since May 2022.