Hariri’s final stance on Aoun not imminent
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/October 15/16
BEIRUT: Despite optimism by Free Patriotic Movement officials that a deal on backing MP Michel Aoun for the presidency is drawing near, all signs indicate that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s final word on whether to endorse Aoun’s presidential bid is not imminent, political sources said Friday.
“Hariri is intensifying his efforts both at home and abroad with the aim of ending the presidential vacuum,” a political source told The Daily Star. “Therefore, he is not expected to make a final decision on the presidential election before winding up his consultations with local and regional players.”
Hariri, currently in Paris as part of a foreign trip aimed at facilitating the election of a president, was reported Friday to have met with Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a top aide to Speaker Nabih Berri, who staunchly opposes Aoun’s candidacy for the presidency. Khalil flew to Paris earlier Friday on the same plane from Beirut with Nader Hariri, chief of Hariri’s staff.
Future Movement sources told The Daily Star that Hariri might also visit Egypt and Turkey as part of his current efforts to resolve the presidential crisis, which has entered its third year.
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora declined to comment on the FPM officials’ upbeat note about the possibility of Hariri finally declaring his support for Aoun’s candidacy for the president.
“So far, the Future Movement bloc’s stance on the presidential election has not changed,” Siniora told The Daily Star, referring to the bloc’s declared support for Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh, who is standing against Aoun in the presidential race.
Siniora, head of the Future parliamentary bloc, said Hariri had promised to consult with the bloc if and when he decides to shift his support from Frangieh to Aoun.
Hariri had met in Paris Thursday with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, the latest in a flurry of high-level consultations the head of the Future Movement has undertaken with local and international actors in an attempt to end the presidential stalemate. Hariri also traveled to Riyadh before visiting Paris. He has also visited Moscow earlier this month, where he held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Hariri’s consultations with Lebanese leaders have signaled that he might shift his support for Aoun in a bid to break the presidential impasse.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, one of the FPM’s two ministers, sounded optimistic that rival leaders would reach an agreement on the presidency soon, but stressed that the final say in the agreement remained with Hariri to endorse Aoun’s candidacy for the country’s top Christian post.
“It is no secret that the presidency issue is getting close, but it has not yet been resolved,” Bou Saab told a joint news conference with Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel at the latter’s Bikfaya residence.
“There were obstacles that have to a large extent been eliminated. We are waiting for the Future Movement and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in particular to declare a clear stance on this issue,” he said.
“If the situation goes in the direction that we are witnessing, then yes, we are seeing that Aoun will be elected president,” Bou Saab added.
Bou Saab, who led a FPM delegation for talks on the presidential election with the Kataeb Party, said the FPM supported reaching understandings with all the parties over the presidency, while it opposed bilateral or quadripartite understandings that happened in the past.
Bou Saab and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the FPM leader, have met with heads of several political blocs, seeking to rally their support for Aoun’s presidential bid. Describing the meeting with Gemayel as important, he said: “We have informed the Kataeb Party on what we have reached, and we discussed what measures will be taken in the following days.”
Gemayel has said the Kataeb Party will not support Aoun or Frangieh for the presidency due to political differences.
Gemayel acknowledged political differences between the Kataeb Party and the FPM. “Our political stance is not to be bought or sold and this is what we discussed with the [FPM] delegation,” he said.
“We are open to debate with Sleiman Frangieh and Michel Aoun to reach an understanding that will allow us to elect one of the two candidates without contradicting our principles,” Gemayel said. “But so far, there is no understanding. We might cast a blank ballot or support a third candidate.”
The FPM is set to hold a huge demonstration Sunday in memory of those who died on Oct. 13, 1990, when Syrian and Lebanese armies ousted Aoun from the presidential palace in Baabda, who was an Army commander heading an interim government.
For his part, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said electing any president and avoiding preconditions is better than continuing with the current political stalemate. “It’s now time to get out of the byzantine controversy over the presidency and elect any president without any restriction or condition,” Jumblatt, who supports Frangieh’s candidacy, said in a tweet.
The PSP chief advised Lebanese politicians to stop believing that their country is among the main concerns of the world, saying that they should instead look for an internal settlement to end the presidential vacuum.
Referring to the controversy over Berri’s package deal proposal to end the presidential void, Jumblatt said: “Enough empty baskets and illusions that Lebanon is listed on [foreign] countries’ priority agenda.”
Jumblatt emphasized his belief that no party in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, could endure the risks of this power vacuum any longer.
Ambassador Christina Lassen, head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, met with Aoun, discussing with him the political situation in the country, particularly the ongoing efforts to elect a president.
“The presidential vacuum in Lebanon has now lasted almost two and half years. The EU has repeatedly called on the Lebanese political forces and stakeholders to put partisan and individual interests aside and find a viable compromise to elect a president,” Lassen said after meeting at Aoun’s residence north of Beirut according to a statement from her office.
