Berri: Taef must be fully implemented, including the deconfessionalization of Parliament

BEIRUT — Parliament Speaker Nabih BerrI denied on Wednesday, in a statement to the newspaper An-Nahar, the rumors that Shiites would be given more positions in the state in exchange for Hezbollah handing over its weapons.

"These claims are completely unfounded," he said.

"What we want is the implementation of the Taef Agreement from A to Z," Berri added, calling on "all those concerned, both inside and outside the country, to take note of this position."

He also stressed that "as a sign of this commitment, I have submitted a proposal to introduce elections outside confession-based constraints, as well as the election of a Senate, which would remove some prerogatives from the Speaker of the House."

A little over a month after the government's decision to reserve the state's monopoly on weapons, Hezbollah has posited its equation: The implementation of reforms to the political system.

During parliamentary meetings on the electoral law, Shiite MPs Ali Fayad (Hezbollah) and Ali Hassan Khalil (Amal) went beyond the debate on expatriate voting to broach the subject of political system reform, an initiative that would demographically benefit Shiites but raises concerns among many Christians attached to confessional parity.