Mouawad assails Aoun for talks with other Christian figures

 

Social Affairs Minister Nayla Mouawad lashed out at the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Michel Aoun, on Tuesday for holding meetings with Christian officials to discuss the presidential vacuum, describing the initiative as a “trivial attempt to isolate the Maronite Patriarchate.”

 

“Aoun cannot take the place of the Maronite Patriarchate no matter how much he inflates himself,” Mouawad said after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir in Bkirki.

 

Aoun has been holding meetings with different Christian officials for two days at his residence in Rabieh to discuss the presidential crisis.

 

Mouawad called on Aoun to “be together” with the ruling March 14 coalition in order to elect a new president.

“The strategy of covering the hampering of the presidential election does not benefit either the Lebanese people or Christians in particular,” she said.

 

Parliament failed to elect a new head of state last Friday after the opposition and the March 14 Forces could not agree on a candidate. A new session is scheduled for Friday.

 

“Whoever wants this country to be stable should elect a president on Friday,” Mouawad said. “Hampering the presidential elections only benefits the Syrian regime.”

 

Presidential candidate and March 14 MP Butros Harb said after meeting with Sfeir on Tuesday that Aoun “has the right to call for meetings and hold negotiations with whoever he sees appropriate.”
 

“My evaluation of those meetings will be coomunicated after I learn of their outcome,” Harb said.

 

Harb said he had put his candidacy to the country”s top post “at the disposal of the head of Bkirki,” calling on all presidential candidates to follow his lead.

 

“Bkirki is the religious and national refuge for Christians, particularly the Maronites, during severe crises,” the legislator  said. “We refuse that the Lebanese get used to the presidential vacuum.”

 

Future Movement MP Hadi Hobeish said a presidential candidate could not occupy the top post “without … Bkirki”s cover.”

 

“The half-plus-one scenario will be our last choice if consensus could not be reached,” Hobeish said after meeting Sfeir.

 

Hobeish said those “who really want to serve the Christians” interests should first participate in the Parliament session to elect a new president,” he said in reference to Aoun, who, as part of the opposition, boycotted previous Parliament sessions to elect a president.

 

Sfeir also met on Tuesday with Egyptian Ambassador Ahmad Bidiawi, who left without making any comment to the press.