Bassil Rejects 'Any Equation that Puts Christians outside Power'
Free Patriotic Movement chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has rejected what he called “any equation that allows putting Christians outside power” in Lebanon.
“We do not accept this Lebanon because it does not resemble us... We will keep struggling for Lebanon, its National Pact, sovereignty, independence, dignity and identity,” said Bassil during a meeting with Lebanese expats in California.
“Which Lebanon do we want? We want the Lebanon of the National Pact – the National Pact upon which Lebanon was built,” the FPM chief added.
“Do we want a president? Yes we want a president, but we want him to represent his people,” Bassil added, stressing that the electoral law and the government must also “represent all Lebanese.”
The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the National Pact.
The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership.
Bassil had recently warned that the country might be soon plunged into a “political system crisis” if the other parties do not heed the FPM's demands regarding Muslim-Christian “partnership.” The FPM has also announced that it will resort to street protests to press for its demands.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, FPM founder MP Michel 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.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
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