Aoun: We Achieved What We Wanted in Today's Session, No President before Electoral Law
Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun announced Thursday after a stormy cabinet session and violent street protests that his movement managed to achieve its objectives from what he had dubbed as a “fateful day,” stressing that “there will be no new president” before the political forces agree on a new electoral law.
“Today was a historic day for us and we're still at the beginning of our movements. We will regain everything that they usurped from us through erosion,” said Aoun at a press conference in Rabieh.
“You saw how the young men were assaulted by the armed forces,” said Aoun of the scuffles that erupted between FPM protesters and the army outside the Grand Serail.
“Do you think that the use of force will deter us?” he asked rhetorically.
The FPM leader also criticized the army's Orientation Directorate for issuing two statements in which it announced that “the military institution will not be dragged into a confrontation with any party” and that “seven troops were injured after a group of protesters assaulted them.”
“I ask the (army's Orientation Directorate) in Yarze about the purpose behind its statements. Is it to justify the assault on the protesters? No one attacked the security forces,” Aoun added.
Emphasizing that “no one has the right to extend the terms of the parliament or the army commander,” Aoun lamented the presence of “bad and wrong interpretations of the Constitution.”
“The presidential election can only happen through a settlement enjoying everyone's consent because this parliament is illegitimate. The articles of the Constitution cannot be bypassed in the approach through which cabinet sessions are being run,” the FPM leader underlined.
“There won't be a new president before devising a new electoral law” for parliamentary polls, Aoun added.
Asked about the absence of the FPM's allies from the street protests, Aoun said: “I don't want to talk about my allies and the issue is a Christian cause.”
“We will continue our moves and we want our rights,” he went on to say.
“We are the biggest Christian bloc in parliament,” he pointed out.
Asked whether there will be further protests in the coming days, Aoun noted that they will be suspended until Eid al-Fitr.
“We achieved what we wanted in the cabinet session,” he declared, adding that “no decisions will be taken in cabinet” without the “approval” of the FPM and its allies.
Earlier on Thursday, the cabinet's parties agreed to continue the thorny debate over the cabinet's decision-taking mechanism after Eid al-Fitr, after a heated session that witnessed the approval of one ordinary agenda item.
Aoun had called on his supporters to prepare for rallies to restore what he described as “the rights of the Christians.” Preparations for the demos began after the cabinet failed to discuss the appointment of high-ranking security and military officials.
The FPM chief has been lobbying for the appointment of Commando Regiment commander Chamel Roukoz, his son-in-law, as army chief.
Y.R.
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