Lebanese president raps gov't as unconstitutional

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has said that Prime Minister Fouad Seniora's government "has no constitutional competence to exercise procedural authority due to lacking in constitutional components," the As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

Citing a letter sent by the presidency to the cabinet on Tuesday, the daily reported that Lahoud said an economic plan adopted by the cabinet earlier this month was "null and void on the basis that they were issued by an authority that has lost constitutional components or competence to exercise procedural power."

The government said that the six-point socio-economic recovery and reform plan was aimed at spurring economic growth and helping ease burden of Lebanon's public debt of 41 billion U.S.dollars.

"Any invitation to convene the cabinet as of Nov. 11 has been unconstitutional and non-existent owing to lack of the government's constitutional legitimacy," Lahoud said, referring to resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers.

Lebanese sectarian tension began to escalate when the six ministers resigned after Seniora and the anti-Syrian majority in the parliament rejected the opposition's demand for a new national unity government.

In the wake of their resignations, the opposition said that Seniora's government had lost its legitimacy since Shiite Muslims are no longer represented.

However, the anti-Syrian ruling parliamentary majority has accused the opposition of doing Damascus and Tehran's bidding and seeking to undermine the formation of an international tribunal on the case of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's killing.

Source: Xinhua