he Higher Defense Council held its first meeting at the Baabda Palace under the chairmanship of President Michel Aoun and in the presence of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, director-general of the State Security apparatus, Maj. Gen. George Qaraa and other security officials, the National News Agency reported Thursday.
The military and security chiefs and judicial authorities attended the meeting, NNA added.
Ahead of the session, Aoun and Hariri held a one-on-one meeting.
Aoun stressed the “importance of pre-emptive confrontation against terrorist groups and the need for coordination between the security agencies.”
An invitation was addressed to Qaraa, after being exempted from such meetings during the term of Prime Minister Tammam Salam– when Lebanon was witnessing a vacuum at the presidential level.
Christian political parties and ministers have described the exclusion of Qaraa from security meetings at the Grand Serail as an “encroachment on the rights of Christians in state institutions.”
