Bassil Rejects Foreign Intervention in Presidential Stalemate, Considers LF Positivity 'Useless'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil ruled out any foreign interference in the presidential elections amid the regional developments, stressing that Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea's agreement to run in presidential race that includes him and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun isn't enough to resolve the country's lingering crisis.
“We don't need foreign agreements to elect a president. We are seeking to elect a president according to local balances,” Bassil said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Tuesday.
“Only the Lebanese system gives priority to any issue and no one else. For the first time we have a chance not to have anyone interfering in our affairs.”
Lebanon has been without a president since May when the term of Michel Suleiman ended over differences among the parliamentary blocs on a compromise head of state.
Bassil, who is affiliated to the Free Patriotic Movement that is allied with the March 8 coalition, expressed belief that foreign countries have no “will or intention” to impose anything on Lebanon amid this stage.
Asked if the the FPM rejects any foreign intervention after several countries refused Aoun's candidacy, Bassil denied that the party “carried out any contacts with outside countries regarding the presidential elections.”
“We have limits to any offered foreign aid because we want to maintain our independence and self-respect.”
Saudi Arabia has reportedly rejected the nomination of Aoun for the presidency, fearing his “hidden intentions.”
Commenting on Geagea's stance regarding Aoun's proposal to head to the parliament and elect a president in a race that only includes both of them, Bassil considered the stance as “positive but not enough” to end the presidential deadlock.
“He (Geagea) would still have to convince his allies to agree on the proposal,” the FM said.
He stressed that his party “isn't preventing anyone from running in the presidential elections.”
Bassil added that the Christian representation of March 14 leader and Kataeb party chief Amin Gemayel comes in the “third and fourth rank but not the second.”
Gemayel had continuously expressed willingness to run in the elections instead of Geagea as the majority of the March 8 camp's lawmakers have boycotted the presidential elections sessions, which has been seen as a sign of their rejection to Geagea's candidacy.
Bassil told al-Hayat newspaper that the FPM encourages any dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal Movement.
“Whatever this dialogue produces will be better than the rift... It could have fruitful results that would be used in preserving the country's interests and ease the presidential crisis.”
However, he pointed out that the dialogue between the FPM and al-Mustaqbal became “useless.”
On accusations that the Change and Reform ministers are obstructing the work of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet, the FPM official denied the reports, saying: “the state can cope with the vacuum (at the Baabda Palace) which indicates that the system is fragile.”
The cabinet assumes the executive tasks of the president as stated by the constitution until a new head of state is elected.
Bassil expressed fear that “Lebanon could pay the price of the conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites and could also seek solutions.”
“Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon could agree regardless of the regional conflicts and the Christians could play a positive role.”
H.K.
G.K.
25 November 2014, 11:01
1713
"Saudi Arabia has reportedly rejected the nomination of Aoun for the presidency, fearing his “hidden intentions.”"
that's all there is about it. m14 cannot take a step without saudi permission.
25 November 2014, 11:03
1613
and btw the title is erroneous, bassil didnt say LF's "positivity is useless", he said it's "positive but not enough". big difference
25 November 2014, 12:13
99
my humble truth:
FPM is sold to Iran and Syria...about 50 people (caporal's inner circle) receive very big amounts from the "divine party" to maintain the "system". The result is that they are corrupt and servants.
They are traitors (definition of traitor in encyclopedia universalis) and abiding to unpatriotic orders which are destructive for the Christians.
PS: I don't care what March 14 or 15 or 35 are doing...I am telling one thing is that this tayyar is made of traitors destroying the Christians...all other matters will not reduce this real fact.
25 November 2014, 12:16
77
and M8 can go to the moon without khameni and assad approval? com'on man who are you kidding!
25 November 2014, 12:57
136
oh now it's syria and iran paying money to aoun and 50 of his inner circle? lol what a joke and a hypocrite you are, especially when everybody knows m14 bathes in saudi oily money and bought their votes with saudi billions at each election.
if aoun was after money he'd do like m14 and lick saudi boots, not rely on financially weak countries like iran and syria.
25 November 2014, 11:53
56
god bless Micha and hope more of her family will visit our mountains so filth and terror freeze to death
25 November 2014, 11:55
69
Two and ONLY TWO questions to the followers of caporal and imbassil (please answer without talking about anything else):
1- Are the Caporal and imbassil and Co receiving their orders from outside: From Iran and Syria. YES or NO
2 - Are these same people now multimillionnaires : YES or NO.
PS : You never dared to go and verify as an example Simon's somptuous villa in Ehmej (1200 m2 + 17000 m2 of land) when everyone knows what were his revenues in France in 2005 = 1300 euros/month
25 November 2014, 12:01
86
"Today power went off, just as I was celebrating with my wife her birthday, but we carried on the celebrations on candle lights". This was one of the infamies said by this man a very few Summers ago. Come on man, almost anyone these days has a a or 10 Amperes Tripper, let alone him who was at the time minister. Now if at the time he felt that we the people are so gullible, then how much more is he? If today this same man, whom I would have expected to mature just a tad after a few years, says such a silly statement of the LF, would I or anyone with a two bits brain take him seriously? Jeeeez!!!
25 November 2014, 12:07
95
Slash, he is simply an extension of his father-in-law's ego, alter ego. Combine that with absolute greed, absolute hatred and absolute submission to any shoe that pays him to be a mouthpiece, and you would have the hierarchy and notorious clan and gang of the Michel Aoun family. It seems to them that only them know how to run a country, of course, in the reverse sense of patriotism. Aoun was bacteria, today he is a plague obviously still continuing his life mission to divide and weaken not only the Christians of Lebanon, but all of the Lebanese.
25 November 2014, 12:10
68
Now my humble truth:
FPM is sold to Iran and Syria...about 50 people (caporal's inner circle) receive very big amounts from the "divine party" to maintain the "system". The result is that they are corrupt and servants.
They are traitors (definition of traitor in encyclopedia universalis) and abiding to unpatriotic orders which are destructive for the Christians.
PS: I don't care what March 14 or 15 or 35 are doing...I am telling one thing is that this tayyar is made of traitors destroying the Christians...all other matters will not reduce this real fact.
25 November 2014, 12:17
66
hidden agenda in grandpa aoun means mental instability .. by the way isn't he above the age limit to become a president of the republic
25 November 2014, 19:39
34
Yep oua nabka so true, the presidential caravan has passed the octogenarian presidential hopeful by and it ain't coming back, Yet some dogs keep barking. It's very sad, I hate seeing the elderly suffer although senility seems to make their suffering more bearable.
25 November 2014, 12:32
67
Perfect answer and on the spot...brilliantly said. Congratulations!
So good that it is wothy being reinforced. So here it is again:
"..... he is simply an extension of his father-in-law's ego, alter ego. Combine that with absolute greed, absolute hatred and absolute submission to any shoe that pays him to be a mouthpiece, and you would have the hierarchy and notorious clan and gang of the Michel Aoun family. It seems to them that only them know how to run a country, of course, in the reverse sense of patriotism. Aoun was bacteria, today he is a plague obviously still continuing his life mission to divide and weaken not only the Christians of Lebanon, but all of the Lebanese.
25 November 2014, 13:38
54
Geha, you mussed the -uc- up .. just want to let you know, bassil deserve it .. he induvifually contributed to years of stallment and backwardness, just rember how long did it take us each time they wanted to add this looser to the cabinet. ..! Father in law always keep us waiting to act unless gebran bassil have what he wanted.
25 November 2014, 14:10
43
Bassol knows neither geagea nor aoun are going to be president this time around but his allies forgeign overloards are not ready to ease the election of a president. That is why they refuse to attend the presidential vote. Besides even Ba$$il's own allies have not supposed any of his pappy in law's proposals.
25 November 2014, 14:15
44
Aoun's law allows the Muslims to choose the Christian Pres on time every time regardless.
If he really cared about true Democracy his proposal would be that all Lebanese choose their Pres in a universal suffrage in one round, period!
On the other hand if he truly wanted the Christians to have the swaying vote in electing their Christian Pres as he claims, he would have proposed a two round vote but in reverse of what he offered; in the first round all Lebanese Muslims and Christians vote in a universal suffrage, then the top two or three vote getters face off in a run off election in which only the Christians vote. Obviously all Aoun is interested in is engaging in is his usual artful deception. Some people are fooled every time
25 November 2014, 14:35
115
Yesterday, I doubted Ft when he accused you of being a hater disguised as a neutral....I thought maybe you were having a bad day & spoke ill without thinking or hating in any sense.
Today you have more than confirmed exactly what FT wrote.
To me your kind are the sneakiest & most dangerous to their own people.
sneaks who hide behind neutrality, but are indeed "haters" & nothing else.
Biggest apologies for the person who only says it as it is..FT = Truth !
sorry I doubted ya mate..unfortunately I was deceived by this hater.
25 November 2014, 14:38
95
God Bless the only true Lebanese Party!!
who else is asking for Lebanese to self rule?
25 November 2014, 15:00
812
fpm = traitors to Lebanon and destructors of the Christian rights.
25 November 2014, 15:12
44
god bless micha and nancy good female storms for filthy terrorists takfiries to freeze
25 November 2014, 15:29
69
not only your comments, norma. Anything that does not agree with flamethrower and his office boy mowaten is mass reported and deleted. They are paid to be here to disrupt this forum and silence any views that oppose the party of terrorism and its ally the party of shame, lies, and deceit.
25 November 2014, 16:10
00
Loyalty to the Resistance bloc leader MP Mohammad Raad blamed the obstruction of the presidential election on the March 14 coalition, for nominating Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. 18/05/2014
That's odd I thought that, according to Aoun, the only legitimate presidential candidate other than himself is the same Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. So Raad's claims are false and his party and his allies were the ones obstructing the presidential elections.
25 November 2014, 16:26
42
I was thinking the same, what is the matter with people giving this guy more than what he is, out of all smart Lebanese, this one is our pick to represent us infront of foreign powers? Seriously?
25 November 2014, 16:36
00
Bassil makes plenty of harmless noise, like some bodily functions.
25 November 2014, 18:33
00
"He stressed that his party “isn't preventing anyone from running in the presidential elections.” " well would someone care to explain what the hell they're doing in this case?
25 November 2014, 19:03
56
Guys help me understand this: so Aoun proposed that he and Geagea be the only two candidates, Geagea said he's willing to face Aoun but not at the expense of others' candidacies... then Jebran Babyface Bassil says Geagea's stance is "positive but not enough" and the FPM “isn't preventing anyone from running in the presidential elections.”
So what's all this talk about Aoun and Geagea being the only two candidates? Someone explain the FPM's "initiative" for me...
25 November 2014, 23:32
02
You have very well understood the situation. There are the brain washed on one side and the mononeurons on the other. Both together make the idiots.
The idiots are those who believe imbassil and try to justify "what he said without saying it"
Idiots? Certainly, but they are contributing in the destruction of the Christians.
25 November 2014, 21:05
03
Thibran needs to get his story straight with Ammo Michel. It was Ammo who said that he wanted to go to Parliament to vote with only Geagea as the other candidate.
And as far as not wanting foreign interference in the election of the President, see if Ammo Michel is not waiting on the green light from Nasrallah who is waiting on the green light from Tehran. With the nuclear talks put off until July 2015, it will be until August 2015 before we get a president in Lebanon.... if then.
25 November 2014, 22:40
00
No one can understand geddo auto selectictivity:
"Me or no one" " me vs Geagea"
In what right does geddo impose his crazy selectivity.
I dream of another Sissi in Lebanon putting Mursi (Aoun) in jail to free this country from Madness.
