Wikileaks: Kanaan Describes FPM and Hizbullah MOU as a Mistake

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan described the memorandum of understanding between Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement as a “mistake”, according to a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Thursday.

He instead suggested that a partnership was necessary between FPM leader MP Michel Aoun and then Prime Minister Fouad Saniora in order to end Lebanon’s political crisis, said the Wikileaks report dated July 14, 2006.

The cable also reported him as saying that efforts should be made to prevent Hizbullah from climbing to a position of power in Lebanon, which he said could be avoided through an agreement between the March 14 camp and the FPM.

The MP made his statements to a political diplomat from the U.S. Embassy.

Kanaan also described the July 12, 2006, Hizbullah kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that sparked the July war as “reckless”, warning that it would threaten Lebanon’s democracy and return the country back under Syria’s hegemony.

Furthermore, he said, in a later cable dated July 18, that a partnership between Aoun and Saniora would help in reaching a ceasefire in the July 2006 war.

The cable, signed by then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffery Feltman, quoted Kanaan as saying that some FPM members, such as minister Jebran Bassil, wield a greater influence on Aoun than others.