Gemayel denies promoting Azour, says vote boycott an option

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel has denied that he is mediating between Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil in the presidential file.

“I’m also not promoting (the candidacy) of Jihad Azour and I have not visited Bassil nor talked to him, but the communication channels between us are open,” Gemayel said in remarks to MTV.

“Hezbollah is saying that it will keep blocking the vote to impose its candidate, and we tell them that we will block the vote to prevent them from imposing their candidate,” Gemayel added.

“We will exploit any gap to confront Hezbollah and Bassil is before an important test,” the Kataeb leader went on to say.

He added: “We are in a state of confrontation and we do not accept the choice of surrendering to Hezbollah.”

As for the candidate Chibli Mallat, who was proposed Monday by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, Gemayel described him as a “friend.”

“He was my professor at university and I support adding him to the proposed names,” Gemayel added.

“We would vote for the army commander if the constitution gets amended, on the condition that he declare his political platform,” Kataeb’s leader went on to say.