Aoun Reiterates Ties with Nasrallah not Affected by Differences

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun denies that his ties with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah deteriorated over the controversy on Electricite du Liban’s contract workers, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper quoted Aoun’s visitors as saying that the FPM chief shares with Nasrallah a lot of moral and patriotic values and both have gone through common circumstances.

The differences between the FPM and Hizbullah are only on specific issues that don’t affect the memorandum of understanding reached between the two sides in 2006, the visitors said.

They told As Safir that Aoun, who is also the head of the parliamentary Change and Reform bloc, is seeking to consolidate several of the articles of that agreement that deal with state building, fighting corruption and achieving reform.

The differences between the two sides erupted last Monday when the parliament approved a draft-law on the employment of EDL’s contract workers, a move rejected by the Change and Reform and other Christian blocs for leading to the underrepresentation of the sect in state institutions and for failing to discuss Energy Minister Jebran Bassil’s proposal.

“The current dispute with our allies in the majority on the issue of contract workers and the reform process does not affect the strategic side of the ties that are linked to the resistance weapons,” he said.

Aoun reiterated that his bloc rejected the approval of the draft-law not for confessional or electoral reasons “but for the simple reason that we held onto the proposal of Minister Jebran Bassil that deals with both the humanitarian and reform aspects” of the employment.

“There isn’t any other motive to our stance,” he stressed.

Aoun warned that the employment of the EDL workers could create precedence and lead other ministries and institutions to request such measures.

As Safir said a meeting was held between Speaker Nabih Berri and Nasrallah’s assistance Hussein Khalil in the presence of Minister Ali Hassan Khalil in Ain el-Tineh.

A meeting was also held between Bassil and Hizbullah official Wafiq Safa as part of efforts to defuse the tension between them.