The resignation statement

I would like first to express my gratitude to all who placed their confidence in me to take charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants. My decision to assume this great responsibility was no ordinary matter, in the midst of a popular uprising that rose against corruption and exploitation and for the building of a state of social justice, while Lebanon was living through crises of many forms and causes, at home and in the region.

How hard it is to choose between stepping forward and holding back from the service of one's country, even when the likelihood of achieving even a little has faded, in a system rich in fateful challenges and poor in sound will. I carried great hopes of change and reform. But reality aborted the embryo of hope of making promising beginnings from the womb of shocking endings.

No: I have not compromised, and I will not compromise, on my principles, my convictions and my conscience for the sake of any position or authority. I was raised in, grew up in, loved and embraced a Lebanon that was a home for freedom, thought, learning and culture: Lebanon the beacon and the model, Lebanon the land of a message and the meeting place of East and West.

Lebanon today is not the Lebanon we loved and wanted as a beacon and a model. Lebanon today is sliding towards becoming a failed state, God forbid. And I ask myself, as many do, how far we have dragged our feet in protecting this dear country and in protecting and safeguarding its social security.

After reflection and an honest reckoning with myself; because it has become impossible to carry out my duties in these historic and fateful circumstances; given the absence of a vision for the Lebanon I believe in, a free, independent country, active and radiant in its Arab environment and in the world; and in the absence of an effective will to achieve the comprehensive structural reform that our national society demands and that the international community calls on us to undertake, I have decided to resign from my duties as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants. I wish the government, and those in charge of running the state, success, and a reconsideration of many policies and practices, so that the citizen and the country are given priority over all considerations, differences, divisions and particular interests.

What the building of a state requires is creative minds, a clear vision, sincere intentions, a culture of institutions, and the rule of law, accountability and transparency.

The reasons that led me to resign are those I have set out above. Some interpretations and analyses have been circulated, along with some simplistic and superficial explanations, through certain media; they commit only their authors, and they are all matters I have never stopped over in the whole of my professional life. What remains essential, for a foreign minister, is to safeguard the country's interests, to strengthen and fortify its foreign relations, and to make the international community, and the Arab one, aware of the importance of supporting stability in Lebanon.

I joined this government to work for one employer named Lebanon, and found in my country many employers with contradictory interests. Unless they gather around the interest of the Lebanese people and its rescue, the boat, God forbid, will sink with everyone aboard.