Report: Azour to respond to critics with 'documents'

Presidential candidate and ex-minister Jihad Azour “will not respond to those attacking him but will rather talk to the Lebanese through facts and documents,” a media report said on Tuesday.

“Based on the approach of accountability and the principle of transparency, he believes that every Lebanese has the right to have the truth. That’s why Azour is expected to end his presidential silence to respond to the continuous campaign against him over his role as finance minister between 2005 and 2008,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

“Azour rejects to be labeled as a member of the political establishment, seeing as he performed the mission he was tasked with and left political life in the country once he finished it, without seeking to stay in public posts to preserve a certain political status or benefit from public or political funds,” the daily quoted sources who have talked to Azour as saying.

The sources also said that Azour will not withdraw from the presidential race.