Aoun: We Don’t Oppose Baroud’s Reappointment as Long as it’s Not to the Interior Ministry

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that no progress has been achieved in the government formation, stressing that the FPM is not obstructing the process.

He said after the movement’s weekly meeting: “The movement is seeking to regain central rights that have been lost.”

He added that the Christians’ rights will be restored, asserting that the real obstacle in the government formation process lies in the Interior Ministry portfolio.

“We as Maronites have the right to this ministry … We have no problem with caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud or his reappointment as long as it is not in the Interior Ministry,” he explained.

Aoun said that Baroud’s performance as a minister was not good “due to the authority he represents and we cannot repeat the same experience for three new years.”

Addressing Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s statements that Baroud is a “national minister who cannot be disregarded”, he said: “I don’t believe that al-Rahi’s praise makes Baroud a good minister.”

Furthermore, he denied the existence of a dispute between the FPM, Baroud, and al-Rahi.

“The majority is entitled to appointing the ministers and not President Michel Suleiman,” Aoun stressed.

The MP also refused to attribute the recent security developments in Lebanon to the failure to form a new government, blaming them instead on “the security apparatus’ shortcomings” that were caused by the security forces, judiciary, and previous governments.

“We have witnessed 18 assassinations and assassination attempts and I don’t know if there’s a secret intention to forget these crimes,” he noted.

Addressing developments in Syria, the MP remarked that the stability of both Lebanon and Syria are connected, adding that the Lebanese government should launch an investigation into the alleged shipment of arms from Tripoli to Syria.