Geagea: Efforts Ongoing to Convince Hariri With Aoun's Election
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stated on Friday that the presidential file is complicated and that contacts with al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri are ongoing to convince him to elect the Change and Reform head MP Michel Aoun as president.
“MP Walid Jumblat has realized the actual situation and he prefers that a president is elected instead of the prolonging vacuum. Since the majority of the Christians have agreed on the election of Aoun, Jumblat has expressed readiness to vote for Aoun while contacts are ongoing with Hariri in that regard,” said Geagea to a popular delegation from the town of Tannourine.
Geagea stressed that “Hizbullah is not serious with the nomination of Aoun. The party cannot bear to lose its political alliance with Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement but at the same time it does not wish to have Aoun as president.”
Pointing to the role of Iran in Lebanon, Geagea said: “Hizbullah is a major part of the Iranian strategy in the region. It has many concerns starting from Syria, Iraq and Yemen plus it is trying to keep Lebanon's presidency on hold to trade it later on for keeping the Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria which is widely rejected by Gulf and Western countries.
He elaborated and said: “Hizbullah has two options: either have a powerful (Lebanese) republic and a weak party or a strong party and a weak republic.
“Hizbullah prefers to keep the status quo so it would remain without accountability, otherwise it goes for a president whom it is capable to control, concluded Geagea.
Source: Naharnet
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