Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya calls for Lebanon government ouster

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya has called for the ouster of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government. "This government must depart,” said the head of the group’s politburo Azzam al-Ayoubi. "It has become necessary for this government to leave, and for some [ministers] present in the government, whom we find to be good, to disavow it,” he added. Ayoubi criticized Mikati’s Cabinet as a “government that disassociates itself from all the concerns of the Lebanese citizens.” He also slammed the government as one that “turns its back on the concerns and needs of the brethren Syrian refugees.” His comments were made during an iftar in Akkar, north Lebanon, Sunday evening in the presence of Future Movement MP Khaled Zahraman. Ayoubi also criticized the government for “dispatching” Interior Minister Marwan Charbel to the Bekaa to “negotiate” compensation with cannabis farmers, when it failed to acknowledge people killed in the villages of Akkar and Arsal in shelling by Syrian troops. From: The Daily Star