Aoun Expected to Meet Nasrallah for First Time in Two Years

Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun is expected to meet with Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah soon, a media report said on Tuesday.

The meeting between the two allies has become “certain and imminent,” March 8 sources told An Nahar newspaper, noting that Nasrallah did not meet Aoun after his famous hours-long meeting with Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh in December.

The last meeting between Nasrallah and Aoun was held two years ago.

“Their meeting will have a packed agenda in the wake of the numerous domestic and regional changes and the latest rift between the party's two allies – the FPM and Marada,” the sources added.

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.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of rapprochement talks between the LF and the FPM. The rapprochement was crowned with the signing of a so-called declaration of intent paper between the former foes and an electoral alliance in the municipal polls.

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.