Report: Hariri Awaiting 'Unified March 8 Stance' on Aoun's Nomination
Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri will not declare his nomination of MP Michel Aoun for the presidency, unless the March 8 alliance particularly Speaker Nabih Berri agrees and takes a unified stance in that regard, media reports said on Monday.
Sources involved in the presidential negotiations noted that Hariri has postponed his declaration mainly because of the opposition he faces from inside his parliamentary Mustaqbal bloc, the March 14 alliance and others from the March 8, mainly Berri.
He has therefore postponed the step until he returns back from Saudi Arabia.
Nevertheless, March 8 sources denied the above information and noted that the agreed path (between Hariri and Aoun) provides for the declaration of Hariri's position after which Aoun, Hariri and others would head to Berri to persuade him.
Free Patriotic Movement founder Aoun's chances to be elected president have largely surged in recent days and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the FPM announced Sunday that ex-PM Saad Hariri has officially decided to endorse Aoun's presidential bid.
Berri, of the March 8, has reiterated that he will never nominate Aoun.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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.
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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