Report: Aoun Does Not Oppose Hariri for Premiership
Founder of the Free Patriotic Movement and wanna-be president MP Michel Aoun does not reject that al-Mustaqbal leader MP Saad Hariri holds the post of prime minister, if he himself was elected for the top state post, media reports said on Monday.
“The Free Patriotic Movement does not have a problem if Hariri held the premiership post,” sources close to Aoun said, but added that if that is to happen it should be done “within a comprehensive settlement on national balances that are a red line for the FPM and Hizbullah party.”
The sources highlighted the latest talks between French President Francois Hollande and Hariri where he said that the situation in Lebanon will not be surpassed unless Aoun is elected as president.
Early in June, reports said that Hollande has told Hariri during the latter's trip in France, that the only solution to the presidential impasse is through the election of Aoun.
Aoun sources did not deny reports that Aoun received “official French talks” that he be elected as president, and that the base of this suggestion came after the terror attacks in Paris and the migrants crisis in Europe.
France has therefore saw it necessary to help end the crisis in Lebanon so it does not aggravate in light of the enormous number of displaced Syrians in Lebanon, and believes that a moderate figure similar to Hariri is best to reduce the extreme situation in the country.
Lebanon has been in a state of presidential vacuum since May 2014 when the term of the president ended.
Conflicts between the March 8 and March 14 alliance have thwarted attempts aiming at electing a successor.
Aoun and Marada Party MP Suleiman Franjieh are candidates for the presidential post in addition to an independent figure MP Henri Helou.
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