Bassil says failure to form govt. is 'plot' by Mikati, Berri, foreign forces

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil held talks Friday in Bkirki with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, after which he warned of a domestic-foreign “plot”.

“The ultimate priority is for the election of the president, and unfortunately in a few days we will enter into presidential vacuum, which everyone is tackling as a de facto situation without exerting efforts for dialogue and understanding,” Bassil lamented, warning that keeping the caretaker cabinet amid an expected presidential void would be “adding vacuum on top of vacuum.”

“I told Patriarch al-Rahi that there is a plot for Lebanon, which is refraining from forming a government -- with a clear will from PM-designate Najib Mikati and support from Speaker Nabih Berri, foreign forces and some leaders -- in order to reach governmental vacuum and seize control of the first post in the Lebanese republic, which is the presidency,” Bassil added.

“We cannot accept a government that lacks parliamentary and popular legitimacy,” the FPM chief warned, cautioning that “some officials are pushing the country to constitutional vacuum.”

“Vacuum will lead us to a lot of problems,” Bassil warned.

Noting that the FPM “will keep seeking agreements in the coming days,” Bassil said: “May God save us from what's being prepared.”

“The National Pact is more important than anything,” he added, referring to a 1943 unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.