Geagea: Hizbullah Wants a President with a Weak Personality

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has reiterated that Hizbullah “is not serious” in its declared support for Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun's presidential bid, noting that the Iran-backed party prefers a president with a “weak personality.”

“I believe that Hizbullah is not serious in its support for Aoun... and the party is only supporting Aoun through words. The biggest proof of this is the fact that after we in the LF party supported Aoun's nomination, a serious possibility for his election emerged and yet Hizbullah has not taken any serious step in this regard until the moment,” said Geagea in an interview published Monday by the German news agency DPA.

“Hizbullah does not want the presidential elections to be held at the moment and maybe it is awaiting the outcome of the conflict in Syria,” Geagea added, noting that “they are linking the presidential file to other files in the region on the hope that they can achieve more gains.”

“I don't know who they will eventually support... but they don't want a strong republic nor a strong president, because that would simply mean a weakening of the party's role,” the LF leader went on to say.

He added: “I believe that they will support a president who does not have Aoun's characteristics... they will support a president with a weak personality so that they subjugate him and this does not apply to Aoun.”

Geagea also admitted that he still has the ambition to be elected president himself.

“It would not be about seeking posts or self-fulfillment but rather about realizing a lot of ideas that can enhance Lebanon's future,” the LF leader said, noting that “the circumstances are not ripe for this at the moment” and that the LF is still clinging to Aoun's nomination.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.