The Baabda Declaration was issued at the end of a national dialogue session held at the Presidential Palace on June 11, 2012, and involving all Lebanese parties. The most important of its 17 articles provide for committing to a security, political and media truce, working on consolidating stability and civil peace, preventing the country from sliding into strife, adhering to the Taif Agreement and keeping Lebanon far removed from regional and international conflicts to avoid the negative repercussions of them. An exception is the Palestinian cause, including the Palestinian refugees’ right of return. The declaration has provoked disagreement between the March 8 and March 14 alliances.
The March 14 faction has been calling on Hezbollah and its allies in the March 8 coalition to commit to the Baabda Declaration. They have demanded since June 2012 that the declaration form the basis of the ministerial (policy) statement of any government formed by Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam, and they flatly reject the triad of “the army, the people and the resistance,” an axiom of Hezbollah, as part of any such statement.
