Mustaqbal Informs Berri: No Agreement Reached with FPM

Al-Mustaqbal movement has reportedly informed Speaker Nabih Berri that any agreement with the Free Patriotic Movement is “not tangible.”

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Wednesday, Ahmed Hariri, the secretary-general of al-Mustaqbal movement, informed Berri's adviser MP Ali Hassan Khalil that FPM chief Michel Aoun “remains a distant option” for the presidency.

However, Khalil described his meeting with Hariri as “a routine meeting,” denying the two officials tackled the presidential elections.

Sources told the daily that Hariri informed Khalil that al-Mustaqbal movement will not adopt Aoun's candidacy without “tackling the matter with Berri in the first place.”

Aoun had previously said that he will not announce his candidacy for the presidency if there was no political consensus on him.

On Tuesday, a meeting was held between al-Mustaqbal leader Saad Hariri and Aoun's son-in-law and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil in the French capital Paris.

Lawmakers failed last week to elect a new president as no candidate was able to garner the needed two-thirds of votes of the 128-member parliament to become Lebanon's next head of state.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea received the votes of only 48 MPs while 16 lawmakers voted for Aley lawmaker Henri Helou, one for Kataeb party chief ex-President Amin Gemayel and 52 MPs from the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance cast blank ballots.

The majority of March 8 alliance MPs withdrew from the session after the vote, resulting in lack of quorum.

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