Mustaqbal, Hizbullah Stress 'Need to Maintain Continuity of State Institutions'

Al-Mustaqbal movement and Hizbullah on Monday underscored the need to maintain the continuity of state institutions as they evaluated the security situation in the country.

“The discussion was continued over the open issues and the security situation in the country was evaluated,” the two parties said in a joint statement issued after their eleventh dialogue session in Ain al-Tineh.

The conferees underlined “the need to maintain the regularity and continuity of the work of state institutions,” the terse statement added.

The tenth dialogue session between the two parties was held on April 14. Talks between the two rivals had kicked off on December 21 and had recently faced the threat of collapse due to a war of words over the Yemeni conflict.

According to media reports, al-Mustaqbal and the Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah's main Christian ally, have recently reached a “settlement” on the appointment of FPM chief MP Michel Aoun's son-in-law Chamel Roukoz as army chief in return for naming the pro-Mustaqbal Imad Othman as head of the Internal Security Forces.

Roukoz, the commander of the army's Commando Regiment, will reach the age of retirement in November while the term of incumbent army chief General Jean Qahwaji expires at the end of September.

The military posts in Lebanon are suffering as the result of the months-long presidential vacuum in light of the parliament's failure to elect a successor for Michel Suleiman whose tenure ended in May last year.

The vacuum also threatens the ISF as chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous is set to retire in June.

On Thursday, Aoun held talks with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. According to media reports, Nasrallah told Aoun that “Hizbullah will go ahead with what Aoun agrees upon” in the issue of the stalled presidential election.

Nasrallah also voiced support for Aoun's approach regarding security appointments, according to the reports, while noting that “it is not in the party's interest for vacuum to reach the army command given its battle against terrorism.”

Y.R.