Alain Aoun Slams Top Officials for Ignoring Partnership
Change and Reform bloc lawmaker Alain Aoun has criticized the country's top officials for failing to coordinate with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun when they struck a deal on the new government.
In an interview with An Nahar daily published on Saturday, Aoun said: “Had there been a true Christian partner from the beginning, they would have known that it has a different stance and the agreement would have been struck based on different principles.”
“Huge agreements in the country cannot be based on quadripartite alliances,” he stressed.
The FPM chief has rejected the rotation of portfolios in the new cabinet, delaying the line-up. He is holding onto the energy and telecommunications ministries that are part of his share in the resigned government of caretaker Premier Najib Miqati.
“Those who were surprised by our latest stance should have informed us on the general atmosphere from the beginning,” Alain Aoun said.
“We want a fair and balanced all-embracing cabinet,” he said. “This is our battle now.”
An Nahar also quoted Change and Reform bloc sources as saying that Aoun has objected to the deal struck between the top officials on the government over a lack of commitment to a written agreement reached between Speaker Nabih Berri's advisor Ali Hassan Khalil, the Hizbullah chief's aide Hussein Khalil and caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is an FPM official.
The sources said that the agreement was reached in the initial stages of Premier-designate Tammam Salam's appointment in April last year.
Under the alleged deal, the three parties agreed not to make commitments in the cabinet formation process without consulting the rest of the signatories.
But the sources said that the Change and Reform bloc was surprised by the deal reached by Speaker Berri's Amal movement and Hizbullah at a time when Salam did not even once cooperate with Aoun.
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