Bassil denies meeting Franjieh, says still backing Azour

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday denied a media report claiming that he has met with Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh. Bassil also stressed that he is still committed to the “intersection” with the opposition over Jihad Azour’s nomination.

“He is still fully supportive and committed to the ongoing understanding and intersection with the opposition forces over the domination of Dr. Jihad Azour, and he calls for holding successive parliamentary sessions to choose one of the proposed candidates or agree on a candidate who would enjoy the support of most parliamentary blocs,” Bassil’s press office said in a statement.

“Anything other than this would be a waste of time and effort and an extension of the crisis with further collapse, including any open-ended dialogue without a specific agenda and timeframe,” the statement said.

As for the FPM’s dialogue with Hezbollah, the statement said “it includes clear demands that have been announced by the FPM chief through the media and are related to broad decentralization, the trust fund and the state building project.”

“Dialogue has not yet reached the stage of discussing names,” the statement added.

Al-Liwaa newspaper had earlier reported that Bassil has met with Franjieh over a dinner banquet as part of the “presidential dialogue between Hezbollah and the FPM” and that “the meeting’s atmosphere was positive and fruitful.”