Bassil says willing to 'sacrifice president's name, not post or powers'

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said overnight that he is "willing to sacrifice" regarding the next president's identity, clarifying that he will not "sacrifice the presidential post or powers."

At an FPM event, Bassil added that the "sacrifice" would be in return for "two gains for Lebanon: broad administrative and financial decentralization and the trust fund."

"This is not a bargain nor a concession but is rather aimed at recovering the rights and money of the Lebanese," Bassil said.

He explained that the trust fund had been proposed by then-President Michel Aoun in an economic paper after the October 17 uprising.

"It would preserve the state's assets and ownership while they would be managed by the private sector, which would allow for improving the state's revenues, covering some of the financial gap and returning funds to depositors," Bassil clarified.

His remarks confirm media reports about the FPM's ongoing talks with Hezbollah.

"The two sides exchanged proposals for agreeing on the program and identity of the upcoming president,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

Bassil submitted a “detailed work paper that involves an agenda for the coming period and addresses two main issues,” the daily said.

“The first point is aimed at agreeing on consolidating and activating partnership in governance among all Lebanese components, with the next president enjoying the approval and support of the FPM seeing as it is the main Christian representative,” al-Akhbar added.

“The second point is agreeing on key headlines for the program of the upcoming president in connection with the priorities paper that the FPM had previously proposed, while agreeing on the topics that represent main concerns for Hezbollah,” the newspaper said.

Accordingly, Bassil asked Hezbollah for its approval and for “working with the rest of the allies to make practical steps aimed at paving the way for declaring a major agreement that involves the presidency,” al-Akhbar added.

Informed sources meanwhile told the newspaper that Bassil’s new paper focuses on two main elements: passing the broad administrative decentralization law in parliament and the law related to the trust fund.

“Bassil requested that the comprehensive agreement be linked to the approval of the two laws and other matters prior to declaring support for a specific candidate,” the daily said.