Aoun tacitly criticizes Hezbollah's decision to activate southern front

Former president and Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun has tacitly criticized Hezbollah for deciding to activate the southern front against Israel in support of the embattled Hamas in Gaza.

“We do not have a defense treaty with Gaza and the side that can link fronts is the Arab League, but a part of the Lebanese people made a choice and the government is incapable of taking a stance,” Aoun said in an interview on OTV.

“A victory would be for the entire country, not for a part of it,” he added.

“Saying that taking part in the war was to prevent an Israeli attack on Lebanon is a mere opinion and engaging in the confrontation might increase the risk instead of fending it off,” Aoun went on to say.

He also warned that “translating the developments of Gaza and the South into a presidential deal would be a move against sovereignty.”

“The sacrifices of the martyrs would go in vain and it would be the biggest loss for Lebanon,” Aoun said.

He added that the election of a president “should take place through successive sessions and a vote among the proposed candidates.”

Defending the decision to block quorum for two years prior to his election as president in 2016, Aoun argued that the FPM and its allies resorted to this tactic “due to others’ rejection of the election of the legitimate representative (of Christians) according to elections’ results.”

“I later reached an agreement with the parliamentary majority, whereas today there are divisions, and I would accept all formats and attempts to elect a president, but an understanding is difficult, exactly as the war’s solution, which is complicated,” the ex-president added.

He warned that “the ultimate goal is to usurp the president’s powers,” decrying a “very dangerous coup against the Taif Accord and the Lebanese constitution.”

“Of course caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati cannot carry out all the violations on his own; there is rather someone supporting him, or else he would have swiftly fallen,” Aoun added.

“The government is illegitimate and replacing the president should enjoy unanimity as per the constitution,” the ex-president went on to say.