Beirut: A few hours after former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced that he was ready to back the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader General Michel Aoun for the office of president, the latter visited Speaker Nabih Berri to seek his backing, though no breakthrough was reached.
According to numerous sources, Berri asked Aoun to visit him without his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Jibran Basil, as the leader of the Amal Party was apparently angry at an alleged deal made by Bassil with Nader Hariri, Hariri’s chief of staff, on a complete post-presidential election package, including which parties would be assigned which government portfolios in a new Hariri-led cabinet.
On Friday, Al Akhbar reported that when Berri asked Aoun about the Bassil-Nader Hariri accord, the General responded that “all the talk about deals and understandings and agreements and secure positions are incorrect and have no basis in reality”.
The Speaker, who is as hard-nosed a politician as any among the old-timers, issued a statement after the meeting in which he reiterated that the two men “heard each other’s points of view”, but insisted that his preferred presidential candidate was Sulaiman Franjieh.
For his part, Aoun declared that it was his “duty” to inform the Speaker of the latest developments that led to Saad Hariri’s endorsement, but acknowledged that the meeting did not result in a change. “We are certainly seeking Speaker Berri’s support in the presidential race,” said Aoun, “but we respect his freedom in taking the decision he wants”.
Reactions to Thursday evening’s dramatic developments were numerous, ranging the gamut from those who praised Hariri for his nationalist positions that placed the interests of the country above all else, to those who foresaw unrest and assassinations. Lebanese politicians were divided along ideological lines, filling the airwaves and newspapers with contradictory opinions about how best to save Lebanon from its unending crises, fill the two-year-long constitutional void at the highest levels of the state, and restore confidence among all components.
Everyone waited for Hezbollah leaders to confirm their attendance at the 46th parliamentary convocation on October 31 to elect one of the two candidates in the running: Michel Aoun vs Sulaiman Franjieh.
