Report: Aoun told Assad he doesn't believe Azour will be president

Ex-president Michel Aoun told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in their meeting on Tuesday that the Free Patriotic Movement’s rapprochement with the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party, the Progressive Socialist Party and the Change bloc is not aimed at securing the election of Jihad Azour as president but rather at diminishing Suleiman Franjieh’s chances, a media report said.

The longer-term objective is to “agree later on a third candidate,” al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Aoun as telling Assad.

The former president added that he does not believe that Azour will become president, the daily added.

Assad for his part advised Aoun to talk to Hezbollah, voicing surprise over “the agreement between the FPM and Lebanese parties that antagonize the FPM and its allies,” al-Akhbar said.