Aoun in Anti-Extension Rhetoric on Friday: Threats and Promises
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun is expected on Friday to deliver a slashing speech and announce that the ministers representing him in the government would stop attending sessions if it failed to appoint new security officials.
While some sources said Aoun would withdraw his ministers and keep their resignation as an option, other officials stressed that the FPM chief would not announce his upcoming steps.
He would only remind officials and the people at a press conference he is scheduled to hold in Rabieh about the dangers of violating the law in extending the terms of current senior security officers, they said.
The FPM has been calling on the appointment of new officials and has rejected outright the extension of the mandates of the army and police chiefs.
There have been reports that Aoun wants to have his son-in-law Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz as army chief.
Roukoz's tenure ends in October while the term of Army Commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji expires at the end of September.
Internal Security Forces leader Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous is also set to retire in June.
Some sources said that Aoun could propose a solution to the extension crisis by calling on naming three military candidates and allow the cabinet to chose the most competent to replace Qahwaji.
Aoun's rhetoric is also expected to focus on the presidential deadlock, said the officials, who made remarks to several newspapers published Thursday.
MPs failed once again Wednesday to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose term ended in May last year.
Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned the 23rd presidential electoral session to June 3 over lack of quorum.
The Loyalty to the Resistance bloc of Hizbullah and Aoun's Change and Reform bloc, in addition to other blocs in the March 8 alliance, have been boycotting the elections.
Some sources expected Aoun to promise the people on the implementation of an initiative that he had proposed in June last year.
The FPM chief, who is a presidential candidate, had called for a “limited constitutional amendment” that would allow the people to elect their head of state in an attempt to resolve the presidential deadlock.
Aoun has said that his proposal lies in allowing only Christians to vote for their candidates in the first round.
The system then allows the polls to be held at the level of the entire nation to pave way for both Muslims and Christians to choose the two candidates who received the majority of votes in the first round.
G.K.
H.K.
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