Mashnouq Says Franjieh Nomination was 'UK-U.S.-Saudi' Idea, Urges Rifi to Stop Mentioning 'Martyrs'
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Thursday defended al-Mustaqbal movement's policies in the past few years, as he criticized the recent political rhetoric of resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi.
Describing Rifi as a “friend,” Mashnouq congratulated the minister on his stunning municipal victory in the northern city of Tripoli but urged him to stop mentioning slain ex-PM Rafik Hariri and other assassinated figures in his daily political rhetoric.
“It's about time we stopped mentioning the martyrs. Minister Rifi knows very well that we have not forgotten the martyrs, but the issue of martyrs must not become a daily rhetoric,” Mashnouq added in an interview on LBCI television.
A list backed by Rifi achieved a surprising victory in Sunday's polls in Tripoli against a list backed by Hariri, ex-PM Najib Miqati, former ministers Faisal Karami and Mohammed al-Safadi, Jamaa Islamiya, al-Ahbash and the Arab Democratic Party. The Rifi-backed list clinched 16 seats on the municipal council as the broad coalition's list won eight.
Reminiscing Saad Hariri's visit to Damascus in 2009 and his meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, the minister noted that it happened at the request of Saudi Arabia.
“The previous Saudi policy is what forced us to go to Damascus to seek pacification with the Syrian regime and it was behind the stances that al-Mustaqbal movement took,” Mashnouq added.
He also revealed that the decision to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency was not ex-PM Hariri's idea.
“Suleiman Franjieh's nomination did not come from Saad Hariri but rather from the British foreign ministry and later the Americans and Saudi Arabia,” Mashnouq disclosed.
He noted that the move was an international decision based on the viewpoint that Hizbullah will sooner or later “return defeated from Syria.”
Considering the possibility that Hizbullah might then act “like an elephant in a china shop,” world powers suggested offering the party “a guarantee president rather than a guarantee political system,” Mashnouq said.
“This is what the West thought and that's why it supported Franjieh's nomination,” the minister explained.
He noted however that the election of a new president “is not imminent due to the known reasons.”
Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 due to the rival parties' failure to agree on a candidate and Hariri launched late in 2015 a proposal to nominate Franjieh for the country's top Christian post.
His initiative was however met with rejection and reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah, which is clinging to the nomination of Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun.
Change and Reform and Hizbullah, as well as March 14's Lebanese Forces, argue that Aoun is more eligible than Franjieh to become president given the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
Y.R.
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