Hanover, New Hamsphire: Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Junblatt dropped a bombshell on Tuesday night when he said that nothing preventing him from backing Free Patriotic Leader Michel Aoun as president, a position he has vehemently rejected in the past.

In comments made to the Al Safir daily, the Druze leader infamous for his political flip-flopping, said electing Aoun as president will not change Lebanon’s difficulties because the president’s jurisdictions ‘have become limited’.

“It is enough that he is forced to sign a decree within a specified period of time, while a minister has the ability to put it in the drawer,” he said.

However, Junblatt’s comments begged two important questions: 1) Why did he field Henri Helou, an anti-Aoun candidate in May 2014 and 2) Why did he not coordinate with Hezbollah to assure a quorum and vote for Aoun during any of the past 28 sessions?

Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when Michel Sulaiman’s term ended. Since then, political deadlock in the country, mainly due to the ongoing crisis in Syria has been rampant.

Lebanon’s two main political camps have fielded their own candidates. The pro-Syrian March 8 movement, of which Hezbollah is a part of, continue to insist on Aoun for the seat. The anti-Syrian March 14 movement is fielding Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea instead. Deep mistrust between the two blocs has been the driving force of political stagnation in the country.

This was the knot that Speaker Nabih Berri tried to untie, seeking to lower tensions by reaching deals over promotions and appointments for several military and security officers. Yet, and no matter the putative accords reached around the dialogue table, only the cabinet was empowered to approve the promotion of three senior army officers, among them Commando Regiment chief Brigadier-General Chamel Roukoz, a Aoun son-in-law, to the rank of major general. Given that Prime Minister Tammam Salam vowed not to convene such a meeting unless the FPM and Hezbollah ministers committed themselves not to sabotage the cabinet, chances were poor that such a gathering was in the offing anytime soon.

Ever the survivor, Junblatt—who previously accused Syria of assassinating his father—believed that the publicly pro-Syrian Aoun could not change the body politic, although no one wished to take that chance. Lebanese officials were reportedly working on a new settlement on the promotion of military officers before October 15, the day Roukoz is scheduled to retire, with the hope that keeping the latter in the military institution would allow him to be eligible to become army commander. Few concerned themselves with the impact that a deal would have on the army where promotions was the norm for those who earned them.