Sheikh Ali Al-Khatib, Vice President of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, stressed in a meeting with a delegation of the National Moderation Bloc that “Lebanon’s salvation lies in the full application of the Taif Agreement.”
Al Khatib’s opinion is in harmony with the views of officials representing the five-nation group, known as the Quintet, who strongly believe that the political formula based on equal power-sharing defined under the Taif agreement is the best solution for Lebanon, after all ideas of partitioning projects proved to be futile.
Political forces must implement Taif in its entirety instead of picking and choosing according to their political interests.
The 1989 Taif agreement, which was negotiated in Taif, Saudi Arabia, sealed 15 years of a devastating civil war in Lebanon. The agreement prohibits the existence of weapons outside legitimate institutions and calls for the establishment of a Senate and the adoption of administrative decentralization.
The implementation of Taif must be achieved because it leads to the establishment of a civil state. Taif is the best formula for ensuring the participation of political components in power and decision-making and, therefore, could be adopted in a number of countries in the region, especially to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
