WikiLeaks: Hariri Said Suleiman’s Election as President Will ‘Embarrass’ Hizbullah

The March 14 camp believed that Michel Suleiman’s election as president would “embarrass” Hizbullah and harm Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar newspaper on Wednesday.

The November 4, 2007, WikiLeaks cable spoke of a meeting between the head of the Mustaqbal movement Saad Hariri and then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffery Feltman during which the former informed him that the March 14 camp had not reached an agreement over a presidential candidate, less than a month before then President Emile Lahoud’s term was scheduled to end.

Hariri did inform Feltman however of a “plan B”, which called for the election of then Army Commander Michel Suleiman as president.

He justified the choice by saying that Suleiman was not responsible for Hizbullah’s smuggling of arms into Lebanon.

He also spoke of the army commander’s position on the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri when he submitted his resignation following the crime.

Furthermore, Feltman mentioned PSP leader MP Walid Jumblat’s position that noted that a lack of a western insistence to elect former MP Nassib Lahoud as president meant that the March 14 camp was left with nominating Suleiman.

A November 20, 2007, cable revealed that Jumblat had confirmed that Suleiman would be elected as president and therefore it was best for the March 14 camp to support him instead of trying to harm his chances.