Bassil Stresses FPM Not Sectarian, Says Some Annoyed by Its Alliances

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Sunday emphasized that the FPM is not sectarian while noting that some parties are “annoyed” by its political alliances.

“We stand on a firm ground of understandings that annoys a lot of parties, so they try to undermine them,” Bassil said during a visit to the Mt. Lebanon town of Kahale.

The FPM’s understandings “are too strong to be shaken and they are the guarantee of national unity,” he underscored.

“Our understandings are the guarantee for a strategic return at the political, economic, administrative, developmental, touristic and agricultural levels,” Bassil went on to say.

Responding to accusations, the FPM chief stressed that his movement is “outside sectarian alignments,” in remarks in the town of Sofar.

“We defend every aggrieved and our thought is not only patriotic but rather Levantine, through which we address people through their dignity, pride, living and need for development,” he added.

“It is true that the majority of us are Christian and it is true that some are taking advantage of our calls for restoring partnership to accuse the FPM of being sectarian, but what is truer is that the FPM was launched in the very beginning based on patriotic thought and from a national incubator, which is the incubator of the Lebanese Army,” Bassil said.

“Our movement is a national movement par excellence and it does not settle for speaking about patriotism and non-sectarianism but rather practices them,” he added.