Suleiman Responding to Aoun: Electing President Fastest Way to Withdraw Confidence from Minister

Former President Michel Suleiman criticized on Wednesday Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's demand that confidence be withdrawn from Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, saying that staging the presidential elections would resolve this issue.

He said after a meeting with Moqbel: “Respecting the constitution and immediately heading to parliament to elect a president are the fastest ways to withdraw confidence from a minister.”

The election of a president would be followed by the formation of a new cabinet, he added.

Forming a new government and staging the presidential elections should be means to avoid any extension, added Suleiman.

He lamented the repeated failures to elect a president despite several electoral sessions being held.

He questioned the futility of these sessions “when some blocs have taken the premeditated decision to boycott them.”

Suleiman's term ended in May without the election of a successor.

Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps have thwarted the polls.

An electoral session, the 19th, was held on Wednesday, but it was postponed to March 11 over a lack of quorum at parliament.

Aoun's Change and Reform and Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance blocs have been boycotting the elections, demanding that political powers agree on a compromise presidential candidate.

On Tuesday, Aoun condemned the extension of the term of Higher Defense Council chief Mohammed Khair, accusing Moqbel of “exceeding his powers” as minister and demanding that confidence be withdrawn from him.

The minister hit back at Aoun, stressing that he has “exclusive jurisdiction” to extend the service of army officers.

“The issue of Khair is 100% clear and I have the jurisdiction to sign or refrain from signing” decrees extending the service of officers “according to the Legislative Decree 102 and the powers exclusively vested in me by the defense law,” Moqbel stressed.

M.T.

Y.R.