Report: FPM Denies Agreement with Mustaqbal on Government Quotas

The Free Patriotic Movement seeks to have an understanding with al-Mustaqbal Movement away from any agreement on governmental quotas or military and security appointments, al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

“We have always sought to complete our internal understandings through an agreement with al-Mustaqbal. It is a strategic goal for us even if it annoys some. The country's interest lies in agreements between the strongest, particularly if they do not marginalize anyone,” FPM sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.

“This agreement targets no one,” said the source, and added “what happened between the FPM and the Mustaqbal is simply a necessary understanding that we seek to have also with Speaker Nabih Berri and all other political factions,” added the source.

The sources denied media reports “alleging that a paper of intentions and a detailed agreement on appointments and other issues have been reached with Mustaqbal at the level of the army command, the Central Bank of Lebanon, oil wealth and the distribution of ministries and a new electoral law.”

Hariri's recent return to Lebanon has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock.

Hariri held a series of meeting with political leaders in Lebanon, and has also traveled to Moscow where he met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a bid to give momentum to the file of the presidency.

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.