Friend of Syria’s Assad announces candidacy for Lebanese presidency
Josh Wood/The National/December 18/15
BEIRUT/After Lebanon’s parliament failed to elect a president for the 33rd time, it seemed as though Sleiman Franjieh’s chances at winning the job had dimmed.
This was despite previous cautious expectations that a consensus had formed around him. But the controversial politician, who is a close friend of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, showed resilience late on Thursday, formally announcing his candidacy for the presidency just a day after the failed vote in parliament. For weeks, Beirut had been abuzz with talk of a plan that would see Mr Franjieh, a 50-year-old Maronite Christian, become president and former prime minister Saad Hariri return to power.
Though various politicians and groups had publicly voiced their support for the plan, however, before Thursday Mr Franjieh had remained silent on the subject.
With Mr Hariri a Sunni whose Future Movement party leads Lebanon’s anti-Syria alliance, such a plan would represent a major attempt at rapprochement between Lebanon’s main political blocks, which are split over support or opposition to Syria’s government. If successful, it would end the country’s 18-month-long presidential vacuum.
By an unwritten agreement made at the outset of Lebanon’s independence in 1943, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni and the speaker of parliament a Shiite. The agreement was designed to ensure that none of the country’s sects can dominate the government. But Mr Franjieh faces stiff opposition from two other Christian leaders who have their eyes on the vacant presidential palace. One is Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces, who is believed to have commanded a brutal 1978 attack on the Franjieh family mansion that saw Mr Franjieh’s parents and baby sister slaughtered. The other is Michel Aoun, an 80-year-old former warlord whose Free Patriotic Movement, as an ally of Hizbollah, is technically on the same side as Mr Franjieh.
Much of what Mr Franjieh said on Thursday seemed to be aimed at assuaging fears that his aspirations were threatening the cohesion of the Hizbollah-led pro-Syria political alliance, known as March 8. “Today more than ever before, I consider myself a presidential candidate,” he said, according to Lebanese media. “But I will let General Aoun take his chance,” he added, announcing his candidacy on a Lebanese talk show. “If Gen Aoun does not have a plan B, Hizbollah has a plan B. But this does not mean abandoning Aoun,” he said. “We are waiting and we will not sidestep Hizbollah or Gen Aoun. We have said from the beginning that if Aoun had a chance, we will be with him.”
Despite the portrayal of his candidacy as a backup plan, Mr Franjieh called his relationship with the general “abnormal” as of late and said that he would go ahead with plotting his own bid. He also said that his candidacy had been coordinated with Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Mr Franjieh’s bid has raised fears of splits within the March 8 alliance as it has appeared to turn Hizbollah’s two Christian allies into rivals. Gen Aoun is in a marriage of convenience, rather than an ideological alliance with Hizbollah and has been seen as willing to secure the presidency and power for his party at all costs.
Gen Aoun has spent much of this year trying to build up the power and support that would allow him to be installed as president. But so far, his spirited attempts have failed. His supporters have staged a number of protests, at times violent, criticising Lebanon’s lawmakers for failing to prioritise the selection of a new president. All the while, Gen Aoun has been instrumental in blocking parliament’s attempts to elect a new president.
To be elected president, a candidate must secure a two-thirds majority vote in the 128-seat parliament. If no candidate can secure two-thirds, a candidate needs only a simple majority to win in a second round.In the initial round of voting in April of last year, Mr Geagea led with 48 votes. But since then, MPs from Gen Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbollah have boycotted parliament sessions aimed at finding a president, stalling a second vote as the former warlord jockeyed for power. On Wednesday, parliament attempted to meet to elect a president, but as in previous attempts, the session was adjourned as there were not enough MPs in attendance to meet quorum. For all three major candidates, deal-making across the political divide seems to be the only legitimate way to win the presidency. But while Mr Franjieh’s election would represent a major breakthrough for Lebanon’s divided political parties, his pro-Syria stance could stoke dissent.
Since the conflict in neighbouring Syria began nearly five years ago, Lebanon has pursued a policy of disassociation, well aware of the strong emotions its neighbour stirs here. Syria occupied parts of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 and its troops were only forced out of the country after mass protests following the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri’s father. Today, the Syrian government is either adored or hated by Lebanese, depending on whose side they are on. Despite the policy of disassociation, Lebanon’s government has at times been accused of supporting the Syrian government, most notably by segments of the Sunni community. Pro-rebel Sunnis have been angered by the Lebanese military allowing Hizbollah to operate freely along the Lebanon-Syria border, and aid the Syrian government.
Militant Sunnis have also battled Syria’s allies in Lebanon at times over the course of the war and crossed over the border to join the ranks of rebel and extremist groups. In his interview on Thursday, Mr Franjieh did not shy away from his support for Syria’s government and his friendship with Mr Al Assad. “I will not allow anyone to interfere in my relations with president Assad,” he said. “President Assad will not demand from me anything against Lebanon.” Asked about his platform, Mr Franjieh chose a less divisive topic: Building the country’s broken infrastructure and ailing economy. “I no longer want to dream of Lebanon in a political way. I want to dream of Lebanon with 24/7 electricity, with employment opportunities, that seeks investors,” he said. http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/friend-of-syrias-assad-announces-candidacy-for-lebanese-presidency foreign.desk@thenational.ae
Could Sleiman Franjieh end Lebanon’s wait for a president?
Josh Wood/The National/December 15/15
BEIRUT // For more than 18 months, political gridlock and ceaseless bickering has left Lebanon without a president. In a country where politicians cannot come to an agreement on the most basic things, such as how to get rid of the rubbish that has piled up in the capital’s streets for months, choosing a president from the small pool of Christian former warlords, military officers, businessmen and feudal leaders who are eligible for the post and command political clout is a tall order.
Parliament has met 32 times so far to try and fill the power vacuum and convenes again on Wednesday to consider the latest candidate – the divisive Sleiman Franjieh, an ally of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.
Mr Franjieh, a 50-year-old Maronite Christian, was proposed for the post last month as part of a deal that would see former prime minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni who adamantly opposes the Syrian government, return to power. The deal quickly won the backing of several powerful leaders and the Maronite Church, as well as the blessings of Saudi Arabia and France. Under a sectarian power-sharing agreement established at independence in 1943, Lebanon’s president will always be a Christian, its prime minister a Sunni and its speaker of parliament a Shiite. Despite the initial momentum behind Mr Franjieh’s candidacy, the bid has stalled in recent days. His election remains a possibility, though obstacles surrounding his run underscore the difficulties a sharply divided Lebanon faces in ending the presidential vacuum.
Mr Franjieh’s life, career and political leanings were largely shaped by one bloody night in Lebanon’s 15-year-long civil war. In 1978, when Mr Franjieh was just 13, his immediate family was massacred at their mansion in the northern town of Ehden after a rival Christian militia launched what was meant to be a decapitation strike against his father’s Marada Movement. In a war where atrocities were abundant, the Ehden massacre still stood out for its brutality, with fighters not even sparing Mr Franjieh’s three-year-old sister Jihane and, by some accounts, forcing his parents to watch her execution. By a stroke of luck, Mr Franjieh was not at home when the attackers came.
Samir Geagea, now head of the powerful Lebanese Forces party and a man who has been seen as long eyeing the presidency, is believed to have commanded the attack in Ehden. Suddenly orphaned, Mr Franjieh was brought to Syria by relatives and became close friends with Bashar Al Assad’s older brother Basel, who was being groomed for the presidency until his 1994 death in a car accident. That relationship paved the way for his close ties with Syria’s rulers that remain strong today. At 17, Mr Franjieh became the commander of the Marada Movement and its militia. With Lebanon already split politically over Syria’s civil war, Mr Franjieh’s candidacy adds to the controversy.
If he took the presidency “it would have the potential of radicalising the Sunni community and polarising the Christian one”, said Sami Nader, director of the Beirut-based Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs. “Because at the end of the day, Franjieh has always been perceived as somebody who is close to the Assad regime.” Since Syria’s civil war began, Lebanon’s leaders have maintained a policy of disassociation from the conflict and been careful not to take sides.
The election of an openly pro-Assad president could rile Lebanon’s Sunni community, large segments of which have been sympathetic to Syria’s mostly Sunni rebels. At times during the conflict, Sunni militants in Lebanon have fought against pro-Syria groups here and have also streamed across the border to join Free Syrian Army units and extremist groups. On the other side, Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbollah movement has sent its fighters into Syria to support Mr Al Assad.
“It is a fact that when he [Mr Franjieh] is president, he has to open up to the 14 of March camp,” said Mr Nader, referring to Lebanon’s anti-Syria alliance, which is led by Mr Hariri’s Future Movement, the main Sunni political party in Lebanon.
With support from Mr Hariri and Saudi Arabia, the plan to put Mr Franjieh into the presidency seems to be an attempt at a compromise with Lebanon’s pro-Syria parties, but that in itself is not enough to quell opposition to his election.
Mr Franjieh also faces significant opposition from the country’s main Christian political parties: the Phalange, the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement. While the Phalange and Lebanese Forces are in the anti-Syria camp, the Free Patriotic Movement is an ally of Hizbollah – just as Mr Franjieh’s Marada Movement is. However its leader, Michel Aoun, has thus far been unable to secure the necessary support to become president. Mr Aoun’s movement and other pro-Syria groups have boycotted parliament sessions aimed at finding a new president, forcing meetings to be adjourned over a lack of quorum.
Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has reportedly told Mr Franjieh that Mr Aoun – his group’s more powerful Christian ally – remained its first choice for the presidency. Both of Hizbollah’s Christian partners vying for the presidency puts it in a difficult position. “While it might seem that Hizbollah has a simple task of choosing between its two main Christian allies, it is also probably the easiest and fastest way to lose one of them,” said Ramez Dagher, a Lebanese political blogger. Under Lebanon’s constitution, a president is elected by a two-thirds majority in the country’s 128-member parliament. If no candidate can secure two-thirds of the vote, a second round of voting is held in which a candidate needs only a simple majority.
Mr Geagea of the Lebanese Forces led after an initial round of voting in April last year, securing 48 votes. Fifty-two MPs submitted blank ballots. He needed only 65 votes in a second round to become president, but parliament has not been able to muster a quorum since. Finding a president in Lebanon depends more on careful deal-making and negotiations than popularity. All of the top contenders for the post are former warlords, strong-headed men with significant baggage and lingering vendettas from the civil war decades ago. All face major hurdles in their quests to be elected. Without a deal cut – or a new candidate thrown into the ring – paralysis will continue. http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/could-sleiman-franjieh-end-lebanons-wait-for-a-president foreign.desk@thenational.ae
