Gemayel Not Seeking 'Understanding Paper' with Hizbullah, Says Alliances among March 14 Parties Have Collapsed

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel announced Tuesday that his party is not seeking a so-called "paper of understanding" with Hizbullah, downplaying recent media reports about the ties between the two parties.

"We're not seeking an understanding paper with Hizbullah," Gemayel said during a meeting with a group of reporters that he invited to Kataeb's headquarters in Saifi.

“The communication started three years ago and we do not sever ties with anyone,” Gemayel noted.

He also described the media reports about Kataeb's relation with Hizbullah as a “media campaign against Kataeb's stance on the presidential issue.”

“It aims to tarnish Kataeb's image and give the impression that it has a hidden agenda that contradicts with its public statements,” Gemayel added.

“We meet every now and then with Hizbullah to explore whether they have something new. We are waiting for Hizbullah to become convinced of the need to Lebanonize the political situation,” Kataeb's chief went on to say.

“There is a structural problem and the party is still not ready to discuss us it but we are waiting,” Gemayel added, noting that there is no “systematic dialogue” with Hizbullah.

Turning to Kataeb's stance on the presidential nominations of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun and Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh, Gemayel said Kataeb has not received any answers from the FPM and Marada to the questions it has asked and accordingly it cannot back any of them in the presidential race.

“Consensus cannot happen according to the equation 'either a March 8 candidate or no president at all.' This is not democracy but rather dictatorship and (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed (Hassan) Nasrallah's remarks contained something that is against democracy,” Gemayel added, referring to Nasrallah's latest stance on the presidential issue.

Nasrallah had underlined during a televised speech on Friday that Hizbullah and Aoun's Change and Reform bloc will not end their boycott of electoral sessions unless Aoun's election as president becomes guaranteed.

Dismissing the suggestion that the country needs a so-called “strong president,” Gemayel added: “If a strong president wants to lead you into a mass suicide, would you endorse such a strong president?”

“Who said that a strong president must necessarily belong to March 8 or March 14? Can't he be a strong consensual president? For example, isn't ex-president Amin Gemayel both consensual and strong?” Gemayel asked.

“Bkirki's remarks are not true and the statements never mentioned that the president must be one of the four,” Gemayel added, referring to the country's top four Maronite leaders – Aoun, Franjieh, Amin Gemayel and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of successor. Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri launched late in 2015 a proposal to nominate Franjieh as president.

His initiative was met with reservations and objections from the country's main Christian parties as well as insistence from Hizbullah on supporting Aoun's presidential bid.

Geagea, Hariri's ally in the March 14 camp, was himself a presidential candidate when Hariri made his proposal and some observers have said that the LF leader has recently nominated Aoun for the presidency as a “reaction” to Hariri's proposal -- a claim Geagea has denied.

Asked about the March 14 coalition on Tuesday, Gemayel said “what's left of March 14 are the principles, whereas the alliances have all 'exploded.'”

“No one has a strategy anymore, the alliances have suffered a lot and there is a confidence crisis among all parties,” he explained.

“Each political party now has its own independent policies and March 14 has surrendered to the blackmail that the Lebanese are being subjected to,” Gemayel added.

Y.R.