The recent speculations about Minister of Foreign Affairs Nassif Hitti planning to step down have been confirmed: Hitti has resigned.
Minister Hitti handed Prime Minister Hassan Diab his resignation letter on Monday morning and left the Grand Serail without making any public comments or statements to the press.
Instead, he opted to elaborate on his abrupt decision in print. He issued a statement thanking those who had confidence in him as Foreign Minister “in the midst of a popular uprising that erupted against corruption and exploitation.”
He went on to explain the reasons that motivated him to quit the senior government position.
“I held high hopes for change and reform, but the reality aborted the fetus of the hope to make promising beginnings from the womb of shocking endings,” Hitti stated.
“No, I did not compromise, nor will I compromise my principles, my convictions, for any position or authority,” he declared.
Noting that Lebanon “is slipping into a failed state, God forbid,” Hitti added as an additional factor “the absence of a vision for Lebanon in which I believe; a free, independent, active, and radiant homeland in its Arab environment and in the world.”
Meanwhile, “my duties could not be performed in these fateful historical circumstances,” Hitti said, indicating that this had also contributed to his final decision.
“The absence of an effective will to achieve the required comprehensive structural reform that our national community demands and that the international community invites us to do” is another reason Hitti cited for his resignation.
I decided to resign from my duties as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, wishing the government and those in charge of the state administration to reconcile and reconsider many policies and practices in order to give the citizen and the country priority over all considerations, differences, divisions, and privacies.
Nassif Hitti, resigned Lebanese Foreign Minister.
“I participated in this government from the point of view of working with one employer named Lebanon…” Hitti stated.
Instead, he concluded, “…I found in my country employers and contradictory interests; if they did not meet about the interest and rescue of the Lebanese people, then the boat, God forbid, would sink with everyone; may God protect Lebanon and its people.”
