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Bassil Rejects his Foes' 'Logic,' Says People's Choice on Presidency Falls on FPM

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil slammed his foes on Monday for allegedly paralyzing the presidential elections and violating the National Pact through their rejection of the candidacy of his father-in-law MP Michel Aoun, the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement.

“We won't allow anyone to impose on us a logic that does not impose on himself,” said Bassil, who took over the leadership of the FPM last year.

“As long as the people's choice falls on us, then they are violating the National Pact and paralyzing the elections,” Bassil told An Nahar newspaper.

The minister reiterated his call on consensus over Aoun.

But al-Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri, who heads the March 14 alliance, has been holding onto the candidacy of Marada chief lawmaker Suleiman Franjieh.

Lebanon has been without a head of state since President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended in May 2014.

The lawmakers of Hizbullah, which heads the March 8 coalition, and Aoun's Change and Reform bloc have been boycotting parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a president over lack of agreement on a consensual candidate.

Bassil also criticized the recent branding of Hizbullah a terrorist organization by the Saudi-led bloc of six Gulf Arab nations.

The move has heightened tensions between the group and the GCC states.

“Hizbullah is not terrorist. It is a resistance and a basic component of Lebanon,” said the foreign minister.

He accused Gulf states of seeking to hold Lebanon and the government responsible for Hizbullah's role in Syria although the party's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has distanced the cabinet from the group's involvement in the war in the neighboring country.

Bassil said that Hizbullah “should understand us and help us in some things.”

On the other hand, Gulf countries should be aware that they cannot link the Lebanese state with what Hizbullah says.

“The most important thing is that neither Iran can drag us to a war with Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, nor the latter can force us to fight Iran,” Bassil told An Nahar.

“We are in a war against terror and not in an axis with this and that side,” he added.

G.K.

D.A.


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