Lebanon President Michel Suleiman reiterated the importance of the Personal Status Law and a new electoral law in fortifying unity among the Lebanese.
“The most important pillars of national unity are the electoral law and the Personal Status Law,” the National News Agency quoted Suleiman as saying following a ministerial meeting held on Tuesday in the Baabda Presidential Palace.
The head of state highlighted once again that the legalization of civil marriage would not contradict Islam, because “marriage is a right” and “it is our duty to discuss [this] issue.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Suleiman expressed his support for civil marriage in Lebanon a day after the Sunni Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani issued a fatwa that sought to prevent secular unions from taking place.
Meanwhile, the president asked that the ministerial committee pursuing the case of the Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped in Syria also coordinate with French authorities and reach an agreement with relation to the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant George Abdallah.
Abdallah was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the 1982 murders of US military attaché Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov. These assasinations were carried out in Paris, France.
He has been eligible for parole since 1999, but seven previous bids to be released later, he remains in prison.
Elsewhere, the ministerial meeting that took place today resulted in the adoption of a series of measures that spanned several fields. Most notably, the minsters agreed to the taking out of a loan from the European Investment Bank to finance Lebanon’s highways.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati called for another ministerial meeting to be held on Wednesday February 6th.
