Internal Disputes May Thwart New Government’s Functioning

The new government may witness a series of internal disputes that may lead to hindering its functioning given that President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati will attempt to thwart any attempts by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun to take the government off its course, informed sources told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published on Wednesday.

Such attempts may include him taking spiteful actions against his political rivals, especially the Mustaqbal and March 14 movements, they added.

Suleiman and Miqati will instead direct Aoun to maintain a productive approach in the new government.

Al-Liwaa noted that the MP’s “hasty actions reveal his hidden intentions to eliminate the Taef Accord and return Lebanon to the phase that preceded its signing.”

The sources said: “Aoun’s slogans of combating corruption are a cover for his spiteful and vengeful policies against his political rivals.”

An investigation should instead be carried out over Aoun’s a military government during the 1980s during Lebanon’s civil war and its political and financial practices, they added.

Furthermore, they noted that Aoun may have indirectly criticized Speaker Nabih Berri’s sacrificing of a Shiite minister for a Sunni one in a new government, warning him against repeating such a step.