Condemnations and thinly veiled insults continued to be made against President Emile Lahoud on Tuesday, as politicians demanded that the president "stop misleading the people". Former President Amin Gemayel said "what is important now is to rid the country of the remaining security apparatus," adding that "President Lahoud is part of that system and is protecting it." Gemayel's comments were made to the Al-Jazeera TV station Tuesday, and mainly concerned an interview with former Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam broadcast on Al-Arabiyya TV last Friday and Saturday. Gemayel said Khaddam's revelations represent "a new embarrassment for President Lahoud, who is putting a lot of constraints on the government and hindering it from making the necessary changes to the security apparatuses." He added that the presidency itself is now under a "vicious assault," recalling Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir asked Lahoud to "learn from the past." The Phalange Party leader said "it is up to the president to make a decision that will serve the country."
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MP Atef Majdalani called on Lahoud to "stop misleading the people, making false claims, stop pretending" and just "go away." In a statement, Majdalani said "Baabda's statement was a cover-up of the deep hatred that President Lahoud feels for the martyr Rafik Hariri." Lahoud had claimed his relations with Hariri were "positive and respectful." Majdalani asked whether Lahoud had forgotten the "vicious media campaign that his team led against Rafik Hariri during the elections of 2000 through the official media." The MP further asked the president if he had forgotten that "his officials in Baabda demanded the removal of the evidence at the crime scene (of Hariri's assassination) by removing Rafik Hariri's convoy and opening the road."
In a separate statement, MP Mohammad Qabbani accused Lahoud of "violating the Constitution three times. The first was when his term was extended when he was army commander; the second was when he was elected president; and the third time was when his term for the presidency was extended." Qabbani called on "all forces that are still covering up for the president" to "side with the country and not with the remainder of the security system."
MP Antoine Andraos said it was time Lahoud heeded the repeated public calls and "leave the presidency." Andraos further slammed Lahoud's "irresponsible and appalling practices." He added that the president had "lost his legitimacy" on the same day that Syria completed its withdrawal from Lebanon last April.