Geagea Rejects Tampering with Presidential Term: Aoun Not Suitable President for Lebanon
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea rejected on Thursday proposals that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun assume the presidency for a year or two.
He told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA): “I reject the proposal because Aoun is not the appropriate president for Lebanon at the current time due to his political agenda.”
“I also oppose tampering with the presidential term,” he added.
Geagea stated that he will remain the presidential candidate of the March 14 alliance, “but I had previously announced that I am prepared to search for a compromise president if the other camp wants to.”
“The other camp however refuses to even search for an alternative to its candidate,” he said.
Aoun has not officially announced his candidacy for the presidency, but he has repeatedly said that he would run in the elections if there was consensus over him.
Geagea said: “There can be no solution to the presidential deadlock as long as Hizbullah and its ally Aoun continue to hold onto their boycott of the elections.”
Hizbullah and Aoun's Change and Reform bloc have been boycotting electoral sessions at parliament due to a disagreement with the March 14 camp over a compromise presidential candidate.
Geagea had previously accused them of adopting such measures in to order to blackmail political blocs into electing Aoun as president.
In addition, the LF leader demanded that the parliamentary elections be held as scheduled in November “because they would help in breathing new life in parliament, which may in turn create a breakthrough over pending affairs.”
He did however express his understanding of the Mustaqbal bloc's suggestion that the current parliament's term be extended due to the vacancy in the presidency and the critical security situation.
Commenting on the abduction of the soldiers and policemen by Islamist militants from Syria in August, Geagea said: “I have several reservations over how their file is being handled, but I will not elaborate on them because we are passing through a major national crisis.”
“I will say however that since the beginning of the crisis and until now, we could have done a lot more than what is currently being carried out,” he continued.
He also called for the speeding up of the trial of Islamists held in Roumieh prison and that a swap be made in exchange for the release of some of the Lebanese captives.
The Islamist kidnappers had been demanding that fellow Islamists held in Roumieh be released in return for the Lebanese soldiers and policemen.
“A delay has taken place in the trial of the Islamist inmates. It is unacceptable that a prisoner remain detained for five or seven years without trial,” he declared to DPA.
The soldiers and policemen were abducted following clashes between the army and Islamists in the northeastern border town of Arsal in early August.
A few have since been released, two others were beheaded, while the rest are still held by the militants.
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