Geagea Blames Presidential Vacuum on Hizbullah and Aoun, Ridicules Government
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has denied that he was hindering the election of a new president, laying the blame instead on his rival MP Michel Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement.
“Aoun is theoretically after the presidency but he is practically paralyzing the elections and suggesting” that the polls should not be held if he does not reach Baabda Palace, Geagea said.
“This equation is not democratic. It is unacceptable and is an attempt to impose things by force,” he added.
The LF chief, who is the presidential candidate of the March 14 alliance, stressed that he was “not the obstacle to the election of a president.”
“The real obstructors are Hizbullah and Aoun,” he said.
Geagea made his remarks to the Saudi al-Yaum newspaper excerpts of which were released by his press office on Tuesday.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since May 25, when President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended amid the failure of the rival MPs to elect a successor over their differences on a compromise candidate.
Hizbullah MPs and members of Aoun's Change and Reform bloc have been boycotting the parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a president, claiming there should be consensus on a candidate first.
Geagea said in the excerpts of the interview that will be published in al-Yaum on Wednesday that terrorism was brought twice to Lebanon – first through Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting in Syria and second through the failure to control the Lebanese-Syrian border.
For the past two months, the Lebanese army has been fighting militants near the border with Syria. In early August, extremists crossed into the northeastern border town of Arsal and captured soldiers and policemen.
Two of the soldiers have since been beheaded and one has been shot dead by the fighters from al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State.
Geagea blamed the differences among cabinet members on the failure to release the hostages.
“The government is not able to agree on anything,” he said.
G.K.
M.T.
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