Geagea Urges Bassil to 'Rein in' His Party Members
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday called on Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil to “rein in his party members,” in connection with a war of words over LBP 40 billion earmarked for the Ministry of the Displaced.
“The last thing we want is to create any dispute with the FPM, or else we would not have backed President (Michel) Aoun's election,” Geagea said after a meeting for the Strong Republic parliamentary bloc.
“I hope the FPM chief will give his instructions (to FPM officials) to answer questions instead of digging up the past. If they want to talk about war, we're the ones who know the war's secrets,” Geagea added, in a jab at Minister of the Displaced Ghassan Atallah of the FPM.
“We gave our opinion on the issue of the state budget with all due frankness, and instead of answering us with a logical sequence, he returned to a wrong rhetoric and claims,” Geagea added.
He noted that one of Atallah's “wrong claims” was that the LF was behind the displacement of Mount Lebanon's Christians.
“Do not hit out at us or else you will hear our answers. We did not achieve a reconciliation with the FPM in order to renounce it later, but if someone attacks us we will respond against him personally and we will not be dragged into a problem with the FPM as a movement,” Geagea added.
“Let the FPM chief rein in his party members,” he urged.
Geagea also blasted Bassil for saying that the LF was behind “the fall of Mount Lebanon” during the civil war, in reference to the Chouf and Aley regions from which Christian residents were forced to flee after deadly Christian-Druze clashes.
“Do they want us to remind them of the fall of Baabda after the LF defended it for 15 years?” Geagea added, referring to Aoun's 1990 ouster from the Baabda Palace at the hands of the Syrian army. Aoun was the head of a military government back then.
The latest FPM-LF war of words erupted after the LF questioned how LBP 40 billion were earmarked for Atallah's ministry in the last moments before the Cabinet's approval of the draft 2019 state budget.
Source: Naharnet
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