Beirut: Lebanon’s presidential vacuum continued on Tuesday, after Progressive Socialist Party leader and kingmaker Walid Junblatt offered to pull his nomination if other candidates were also pulled.
Speaking to the pro-Hezbollah daily Al Safir, he said that he would withdraw Henri Helou from the running, provided that the March 14-backed candidate Samir Geagea as well as the March 8-backed candidate Michel Aoun also withdrew their nominations. “We should seek to safeguard the country by placing the nation’s interests before any other interest,” he said.
Junblatt has openly opposed the candidacy of Michel Aoun, with many observing that the PSP leader will go to great lengths to make sure Aoun is not Lebanon’s next leader. His comments also confirms suspicions that Helou was not a serious candidate from the beginning and only put forth to block other candidates. Lebanon’s president is always a Maronite Christian as stipulated in the Taif accords which brought an end to the gruelling Lebanese civil war (1975-1990).
Bloody battles in Lebanon’s Chouf Mountains between Maronite and Druze forces during the war have left many unhealed wounds between the communities. However, Junblatt has displayed a visceral hatred directed at Aoun specifically because of his oft-repeated sectarian pronouncements during the apex of fighting in the Chouf mountains.
Aoun was vocally critical of Junblatt during this time, accusing him of poor commitment to reconciliation efforts between Maronites and Druze.
