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Report: Hariri to Approve Aoun as President in Forthcoming Weeks

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri will soon agree on electing founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun for the post of presidency, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

“Ex-PM Hariri will in a few weeks agree on electing Change and Reform head MP Michel Aoun as president during the parliamentary meeting that follows the upcoming one,” a prominent political source at Hariri's Center House told the daily.

Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Source: Naharnet


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