Report: Hariri-Aoun Relations Showing Flexibility

Despite the negative atmospheres that ruled the last dialogue between al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun and the rumors that it has reached a dead end, unnamed sources said they sensed some kind of mutual flexibility between the Center House and Rabieh, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily, informed sources said that both parties still have hope that dialogue will work for them in the end, and that the presidential candidate, Aoun, is still waiting for positive steps from the Center House any minute now.

Al-Mustaqbal movement has the same flexible positions, added the daily and sources of the movement had stressed the significance of conducting dialogue with Aoun and acknowledged that some of its officials and March 14 figures reached a conviction that the continuation of vacuum at the top state post is harmful for Lebanon and its people, hence electing Aoun is more appropriate.

The sources threw the ball in the court of Hizbullah and blamed it for the failure to help out Aoun to reach the presidential post. “Why has not the party exerted any effort to elect Aoun as president? Instead of saying that the problem is in Saudi Arabia, Hizbullah could have helped Aoun to the presidency with a single phone call with the other candidate Suleiman Franjieh and the story would end there and Aoun would be elected,” Mustaqbal sources said.

“We will be the first well-wishers,” they added.

It is worthy to point to the visit of Mustaqbal figure MP Serge Torsarkissian to Rabieh where he held a meeting with Aoun, they added.

Torsakissian did not elaborate nor comment on his meeting with Aoun but left the purpose of his visit to speculations.

However the sources said that some of the Mustaqbal officials did not welcome the move and described it as a “personal initiative,” that was not organized with the Movement.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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.

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.