The Free Patriotic Movement strongly condemned Thursday Defense Minister Samir Moqbel’s decision to postpone the retirement of the army chief, considering it as “illegitimate and illegal.”
“We will not remain silent over the continued violation of laws and we will do anything necessary to stop the destruction of the State,” FPM said in a statement.
Moqbel said earlier today he would extend the term of Army Chief General Jean Kahwaji, avoiding a vacuum at the head of the military whose leadership has been a subject of political dispute.
Lebanon faces a domestic political crisis that has prevented it from choosing a president for more than two years as its army and security forces confront a militant threat stemming from the five-year civil war in neighboring Syria.
The decision to extend Kahwaji’s term heading the army, seen as a rare neutral institution in a country beset by sectarian divisions, was supposed to have been made by the Cabinet, but it failed to convene because of Lebanon’s political crisis
