BEIRUT: Hezbollah Monday presented the March 14 coalition with a bitter choice: either to elect Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun as president or face an indefinite presidential vacuum.
The offer, made by Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, is bound to further complicate the presidential crisis, which last month marked its first-year anniversary with no solution in sight.
But the Hezbollah proposal immediately drew a rebuke from a Future Movement MP who rejected what he called “threats” made by Qassem over the presidential election deadlock. The Future Movement, along with its March 14 allies, supports Aoun’s rival, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, for the presidency.
Referring to March 14, Qassem told a ceremony of the Baalbek municipality union in the Bekaa Valley: “The other side has two choices: either the election of Gen. Michel Aoun as president, or facing an indefinite [presidential] vacuum. God knows how long this will last.”
Qassem said it was better for March 14 parties to choose Aoun as president “because he is ready to make commitments, broker agreements and ensure the implementation of the Taif Accord,” which ended Lebanon’s 1975-90 Civil War.
Aoun will also guarantee that the transition of the country into a more positive phase of internal cooperation, Qassem said. “If you choose Gen. Aoun, then Lebanon will have a president. And if you don’t choose him, then that means you don’t want a solution,” he added.
In a quick response to the Hezbollah proposal, Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat said Qassem’s remarks destroyed any chance for Aoun to reach the presidency.
“MP Gen. Michel Aoun should be the one most disturbed by Qassem’s comments,” Fatfat said after meeting Geagea at the latter’s residence in Maarab. “If Aoun had any chance to reach the presidency seat, then I think Qassem has destroyed this chance with his latest position.”
Fatfat said Aoun should respond to Qassem by saying “he wants a presidency that is free of Hezbollah’s conditions dictated by Iran.”
He called on all lawmakers to head to Parliament to elect a president in “a democratic atmosphere away from the threats we heard from Sheikh Qassem.”
“Let all lawmakers go to Parliament to elect a president in a democratic manner. What Qassem wants is an appointment, but they will not have our signatures no matter what threats or arms they use,” Fatfat said.
Parliament failed last week in its 24th session since April last year to elect a president over a lack of quorum, prompting Speaker Nabih Berri to schedule a new session for June 24.
Lawmakers from Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc, Hezbollah MPs and their March 8 allies have been blamed for thwarting a quorum by consistently boycotting parliamentary sessions. Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk Sunday said premier Tammam Salam would not call for a Cabinet session this week to give mediators time to resolve the latest crisis over the thorny issue of security and military appointments.
Aoun vowed over the weekend not to back down on his demands, accusing the government of trampling over the rights of Christians by preventing them from choosing new security chiefs. He did not rule out the possibility of resorting to street protests to press for the FPM’s demands. Aoun is lobbying for his son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, the head of the Army Commando Unit, for the post of Army commander.
MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the FPM said he held “honest and constructive talks” with Berri over the issue of security appointments and other matters. The talks also delved into the Cabinet crisis, the presidential impasse and the failure of Parliament to legislate.
Kanaan also discussed with Berri the declaration of intent announced last week which outlined 16 general points of agreement between the Lebanese Forces and the FPM on key issues facing Lebanon.
Berri, according to Kanaan, welcomed the thaw in the decades-old rivalry between the longtime Christian foes, saying the dialogue was necessary.
Telecoms Minister Boutros Harb said he rejected the FPM’s warnings that it would paralyze Cabinet if it didn’t discuss the issue of security appointments.
Harb, who conferred with Salam on the Cabinet crisis, said the prime minister is the one who draws up the Cabinet agenda. “There is a group that is trying to impose an agenda confined to one item with the aim of obstruction and blackmail,” Harb told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
The FPM has been accused by its political rivals of seeking to paralyze the government over the issue of security appointments after party ministers said last week they would not allow Cabinet to discuss any topics or pass any decisions until successors to retiring top security and military officials are chosen.