Joseph A. Kechichian: Michel Aoun reiterates support for Hezbollah action in Syria/Albawaba: Lebanon’s presidential vacuum is getting more than a little awkward

Michel Aoun reiterates support for Hezbollah action in Syria
Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/February 07/16

http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/lebanon/michel-aoun-reiterates-support-for-hezbollah-action-in-syria-1.1667376
Beirut: Free Patriotic Movement leader and presidential hopeful Michel Aoun on Saturday reiterated his party’s alliance with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a day after a large Hezbollah delegation visited him. The delegation on Friday included heavyweights such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s chief political assistant, Haj Hussain Khalil, security leader Wafiq Safa, Minister of Industry, Hussain Al Haj Hassan, and two politburo members, Mahmoud Qmati, and Mustafa Haj Ali. During the meeting, Aoun did not appear to be happy as the group announced yet again it would be boycotting Monday’s scheduled session to elect a president. Lebanon has been deadlocked over the election of a president for almost two years with rival candidate Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea also nominated for the seat by the anti-Syrian March 14 coalition. But when Geagea, in a surprise move on January 18, decided to back Aoun, Hezbollah was caught in a dilemma. Critics say Hezbollah is not interested in electing a president, although Aoun stands as their official choice. Surely, if Geagea backed Aoun, it would be enough votes along with the pro-Syrian March 8 coalition’s votes to put him in the seat.
Despite their decision to boycott the session, they announced on Friday that Aoun remained their official candidate. Despite Aoun’s apparent frustration with Hezbollah over its refusal to attend the parliament session, he expressed his gratitude to the militia for its deployments in Syria, which according to him, had helped safeguard Lebanon. Aoun, a former army commander derided the Lebanese Armed Forces once again, insisting that the army was neither large enough nor capable of defending the country’s borders, saying the task thus necessitated Hezbollah involvement. Lebanon, he declared, was in a “state of war”, bizarre as his assertion sounds. “We are currently living in a state of war on Lebanese soil and we need Hezbollah to defend the Lebanese border,” Aoun clarified, adding: “Our army does not have the equipment or numbers to defend the border, so Hezbollah has graciously taken on this task because our families are in danger.” Few Lebanese understood what that meant, since the actual civil war ended in 1990. Interestingly, this latest affirmation means that the accord reached between Aoun and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on January 18, which saw both declaring that they were opposed to militant forces passing through Lebanon or any arms being smuggled back and forth, has taken new twists and turns. Clearly, a basic contradiction emerged, as the two positions cannot co-exist, which was what the Phalange Party leadership had pointed out a few weeks ago.After the FPM-LF agreement, Phalange leader Sami Gemayel sought clarification over Aoun’s position on the militia’s intervention in Syria, as he sought to know whether the latter’s accord with Geagea meant that Aoun was against Hezbollah fighting in Syria. Aoun’s latest response is bound to raise eyebrows, though the confusion is par for the course.

Why Lebanon’s presidential vacuum is getting more than a little awkward
Albawaba/February 07/16/It’s no news that Lebanon has been without a head of state for quite some time now – former President Michel Suleiman stepped down without a successor in May 2014. Though the role of president, traditionally a Maronite Christian, has remained mostly ceremonial since the end of Lebanon’s civil war, the now almost two-year leadership vacuum has rustled growing discontent with longtime government deadlock.  Recent developments have pointed to two controversial frontrunners for the job. Future Movement leader Saad Hariri, a member of the anti-Assad March 14 camp, raised eyebrows in December when he nominated Suleiman Franjieh, a pro-Assad Maronite figure and member of the rival March 8 bloc. To complicate matters further, March 14 figure Samir Geagea announced his support for archenemy Michel Aoun’s presidential candidacy in January. Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement is aligned with March 8. The whole situation is a little bit awkward (and stunning), especially for those old enough to remember Lebanon’s civil war days – Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces, was behind the murder of Suleiman Franjeh’s father Tony amid intra-Christian squabbles for wartime power. And even younger Lebanese can remember the 2005 assassination of Saad Hariri’s father, former PM and political giant Rafiq Hariri, likely at the hands of people linked to March 8 ally Hezbollah. Observers aren’t really sure what to make of the recent nominations. Some are optimistic that politicians want to mend divisive sectarian rivalries. Others are looking through less rosy lenses, speculating that Franjieh’s bid for president – and Hariri’s support – could cost the March 14 bloc some important Christian allies. Franjieh has also dismissed reports of disunity within the March 8 bloc, telling an-Nahar he held over two-thirds of the required parliamentary votes to become president. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has announced its support for Aoun, spurring opposing parties to outright denounce his bid for the job.
In any case, government deadlock is a sore subject for most Lebanese, especially after the late-summer 2015 “You Stink” protests in Beirut, which spoke against the government’s inability (amongst a plethora of other things) to get rid of growing mounds of garbage.