Aoun says Salameh main culprit in crisis, slams Berri’s 'obstruction'

Ex-president Michel Aoun has charged that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh is “the main culprit responsible for the situation that the country has reached,” as he noted that Speaker Nabih Berri was one of the main “obstructors” during his presidential term.

“All that I know is that Speaker Berri was against my election as president and he obstructed 18 files that I was working on,” Aoun said in an interview on OTV.

Separately, Aoun noted that his son-in-law, Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, is “facing a major attack and a character assassination.”

“But thank God, he is strong and able to endure,” the ex-president added, while denying accusations that Bassil had been the “shadow president” during his tenure.

“This is certainly incorrect,” Aoun told OTV.

As for the unprecedented tensions between the FPM and Hezbollah, the ex-president said “the reconciliation meeting with Hezbollah should be with Jebran” Bassil, revealing for the first time ever that it was Bassil who had forged the 2006 Mar Mikhail Agreement with Hezbollah.

“Today he wants to amend and improve it and I support him in that,” Aoun added.

As for the October 17 uprising that erupted during his tenure, the ex-president said: “There is a new international policy based on undermining economies to subjugate nations, and it was clear that the October 17 movement was directed against me, seeing as it continued after the government’s resignation and was directly targeted against the president.”

Commenting on the issue of the catastrophic Beirut port explosion, Aoun said: “It drew my attention that, after the port blast, statements were made by (then-Israeli PM Benjamin) Netanyahu and (then-U.S. President Donald) Trump speaking of a certain strike but they quickly backpedaled.”