Bassil: Some Parties Awaiting Foreign Instructions, We Extend Our Hand to Everyone

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil lamented Sunday that some parties are awaiting “foreign” instructions related to the country's internal affairs, while stressing that the FPM is extending its hand to all political forces.

“Unfortunately some parties are awaiting foreign instructions to decide our fate inside the country,” Bassil said during a tour of several Aley and Chouf towns.

“We stress that there cannot be real reform without a fair electoral law and apparently there is no intention to approve such a law,” he decried.

“Peace turns into surrender if coexistence is not protected through partnership and equality,” Bassil warned.

And calling for “a full and non-selective implementation of the Constitution and the law,” the FPM chief noted that his political movement “is being penalized because it is rejecting political injustice and corruption.”

He however noted that the FPM will keep “extending its hand to everyone” because its demands are “not partisan but rather for all Lebanese equally.”

“We do not accept that Christians be granted their rights at the expense of anyone and vice versa,” Bassil explained.

“We are secular but if they want a sectarian system they must implement it equally,” he stressed.

Bassil had noted Tuesday that there are “attempts to achieve accord” in the country while warning that the FPM would confront anyone seeking to “block partnership” strongly and to the extent of “martyrdom.”

The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings while threatening street protests and a “political system crisis” over accusations that the other parties in the country are not respecting the 1943 National Pact that stipulates Christian-Muslim partnership.

The supporters of FPM founder MP Michel Aoun's presidential bid also argue that he is more eligible than Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.