Hezbollah and LF make their case for Aoun presidency/MP Ahmad Fatfat: Aoun’s Rhetoric Is Secterian/FPM Sets Stage for Street Protests amid Warning against ‘Political Coup’

Hezbollah and LF make their case for Aoun presidency
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/September 19/16

BEIRUT: Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces, on opposite ends of the political divide, teamed up Sunday to call on the Future Movement and its March 14 allies to elect MP Michel Aoun as president as the only way to end the prolonged presidential vacuum and avoid an escalation threatened by the Free Patriotic Movement. Nonetheless, the pleas issued separately by Hezbollah’s deputy head Sheikh Naim Qassem and LF deputy chief MP George Adwan are likely to fall on deaf ears as senior Future Movement officials have totally dismissed the possibility of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri backing Aoun’s presidential bid anytime soon. They also reiterated the Future bloc’s commitment to supporting Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh’s candidacy for the presidency.

In the meantime, senior Hezbollah and Future officials will meet Tuesday as part of their ongoing dialogue aimed at defusing sectarian and political tensions stoked by the 5-year-old war in Syria. With the presidential election crisis being a main topic on their agenda, Hezbollah officials are expected to try to talk their rivals in the Future Movement into supporting Aoun’s candidacy for the country’s top Christian post, political sources said. But former premier Fouad Siniora, head of the parliamentary Future bloc, who staunchly opposes Aoun’s election as president, ruled out any compromise over the presidency.

“There is no compromise [over the presidency]. There is a democratic path that should take its course,” Siniora told Al-Jadeed TV station. He called on lawmakers from Aoun’s bloc and Hezbollah’s bloc, who have been boycotting Parliament sessions for more than two years, thwarting a quorum, to attend a new session slated for Sept. 28 to elect a president. For his part, Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been hosting the Future-Hezbollah talks and the now suspended national dialogue, reiterated that the only solution to the political stalemate that has left Lebanon without a president for more than two years is through a “full-package” deal that includes the election of a head of state, an agreement on a new electoral law, the shape of a new government and administrative decentralization.

“I don’t have any new initiative,” Berri was quoted as saying by visitors at his Ain al-Tineh residence. Asked to comment on the FPM’s reported optimism about electing Aoun as president at the Sept. 28 session, Berri said: “Let’s wait for the next 10 days to see the truth of scenarios being spread here and there.” Berri, who backs Frangieh against Aoun for the presidency, said: “There is nothing between me and Aoun. He says I am against him, but he is against himself.” The speaker, who indefinitely suspended the all-party talks on Sept. 5, said he will not resume the dialogue “unless all [parties] change their positions and come to the dialogue table to solve [problems] rather than make speeches.”

Earlier in the day, Qassem said the only way to end the presidential void was for all the political factions, including the Future Movement, to vote for Aoun, who is backed by Hezbollah, the LF and some March 8 allies. “Days have proved that the only path to the presidency passes through the election of Gen. Michel Aoun,” Qassem said in a speech during a graduation ceremony in the southern town of Bint Jbeil. “Big and regional powers, the Security Council and the League of Arab States will not be able to change this path. They have tried to change this path for more than two years, but they failed.”Delaying the election of a president will not change the equation and will only result in a longer vacuum and further obstruction and harming of the people’s interests,” Qassem said.

Blaming the Future Movement for the presidential deadlock, Qassem said: “I advise the Future party, which is now blocking the election of a president, to end its hesitation. The road to a solution is known. It is in the interest of the country and their interest to have Aoun as president.”“When everyone agrees to endorse Gen. Aoun, we’ll be ready, we’ll go to Parliament and vote for him. … A victory for Aoun is a victory for Lebanon,” he added. A similar view was echoed by Adwan, the LF deputy chief, who said that the election of Aoun as president or an agreement on a new vote system would spare the country threatened escalation by the FPM. “We are heading for a phase of escalation. There are two ways to avoid this escalation because political stability is essential for Lebanon,” Adwan said in a speech at an LF ceremony in northern Metn commemorating the party’s militiamen who were killed during the 1975-90 Civil War and the 34th anniversary of the assassination of the party’s founder and President-elect Bachir Gemayel in 1982.

“The first way is to elect a president. We, as the Lebanese Forces, have nominated Gen. Aoun [for the presidency],” he said. He called on Berri, Hariri and MP Walid Jumblatt, who all support Frangieh’s presidential bid, “to sit together and talk about Aoun’s candidacy as soon as possible because the situation cannot endure continuing postponement.”Adwan said if no results were reached on Aoun’s candidacy, an agreement on a new electoral law to replace the controversial 1960 system would reduce tensions and prevent escalation. The FPM has threatened escalatory measures against the government over alleged marginalization of Christians in state posts. In addition to boycotting Cabinet sessions over the extension of senior military officials’ terms, the FPM has announced that it would stage protests on Sept. 28 and Oct. 13 in response to perceived slights in the Cabinet and at national dialogue sessions. LF media officer Melhem Riachi said the Future Movement was considering endorsing Aoun’s bid for the presidency. “We’ve discussed with our Future Movement allies the possibility of them endorsing Michel Aoun for the presidency and they’re now considering it,” Riachi said in interview with Future TV.

MP Ahmad Fatfat: Aoun’s Rhetoric Is Secterian
The Daily Star/September 19/16
BEIRUT: Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat Monday singled out MP Michel Aoun’s sectarian rhetoric as one of the main issues his party has with the presidential candidate. In an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5), Fatfat said the Future Movement opposes the extreme sectarianism in Aoun’s speeches. No other Christian leaders reach that level of sectarianism in their rhetoric, he said. Aoun’s party, the Free Patriotic Movement, has recently accused the government of failing to abide by the National Charter, which calls for an equal power-sharing formula between Muslims and Christians. Fatfat’s remarks come as pressure is being mounted on the Future Movement to support the FPM founder’s presidential bid. However, Future officials have repeatedly expressed their opposition to Aoun. They insist that Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh is their candidate for the presidency. On Sunday, officials from both Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces, which both support Aoun’s candidacy, urged the Future Movement and its March 14 allies to back the FPM founder’s presidential bid. But Fatfat instead called on the FPM and Hezbollah to change their minds and head to Parliament to elect a president the “democratic way.”A new presidential election session is scheduled for Sept. 28. However, Aoun’s bloc and Hezbollah’s bloc have been boycotting the sessions for more than two years, thwarting a quorum.

FPM Sets Stage for Street Protests amid Warning against ‘Political Coup’
Wajdi Al-Aridi/Asharq Al Awsat/September 19/16
Beirut- The Free Patriotic Movement is setting the stage for street protests under the pretext of attempting to restore constitutionality after the group boycotted cabinet sessions and rejected to attend parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a new president over the lack of consensus on FPM founder MP Michel Aoun.
The FPM is now carrying out preparations in its regional offices across Lebanon to mobilize its supporters, despite a warning by Christian officials that their protests would be tantamount to a “political coup.”
Sources that have been informed about the FPM’s preparations told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that its regional offices have gone on alert and are setting the stage in coordination with their allies, mainly the so-called Hezbollah that backs Aoun for the presidency, to resort to street protests.
But the Christian officials said that “there are preparations for a political coup … that is a clear coup against the constitution and an attempt to ignite civil war.”
Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said on Sunday that the best way to avoid escalation is to elect a president.
“The LF backs Aoun for the presidency,” he stressed.
Another LF official told Asharq al-Awsat that the party rejects street protests and that it has warned FPM officials against taking any step that would threaten civil peace.
Minister for Displaced Persons Alice Shabtini also said in remarks to Asharq al-Awsat that “Aoun is in a state of disarray and does not know what he is doing.”
She referred to a meeting held by the Ambassadors of France, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States and the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon with Prime Minister Tammam Salam last week.
Shabtini said the statement issued after the meeting is a confirmation that the major countries continue to back the government.
Asked about the alleged coordination between Aoun and Hezbollah over the planned protests, Shabtini said she didn’t want to resort to assumptions. But the minister stressed that the FPM and Hezbollah have political and security cooperation linked to Iran.