Aoun uses Syrian stage to accuse UN of coddling Israel
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun accused the United Nations on Thursday of "covering up all harms committed by Israel against the Palestinian people," adding that the world body "resolves world problems based on the will of great powers." "The United Nations has always failed to condemn Israel due to the veto right and we see it in oil fields with or without a resolution," Aoun said during a lecture at Damascus University.
"Some [powers] are exerting pressures to abrogate the Palestinians” right of return to their homeland," he added.
He also accused "major powers of playing a role in preventing the return to normal relations between Lebanon and Syria." Aoun did not identify these powers by name.
The FPM leader also defended his memorandum of understanding with Hizbullah, which was signed in early 2006, saying it "reflected on our community, enabled us to maintain our national unity and helped the resistance achieve victory in the most ferocious war staged by Israel against Lebanon."
The understanding "empowered us against external threats … and despite all obstacles we achieved national harmony around the resistance, its principles and targets," he added.
Aoun also praised the "miracles achieved by resistance fighters" against Israel during the summer 2006 war.
He added that "terror groups in North Lebanon have a specific ideology," the source of which "no one is ignorant of." He added that no one is ignorant of the source of "the groups” financial resources," either.
Aoun also said he had "many reservations about the Taif Accord because there is no equality between constitutional institutions, especially between the Lebanese presidency and premiership."
Aoun arrived in Syria on Wednesday to meet with top officials, including President Bashar Assad. He was also expected to visit Christian holy sites during his visit, which will last several days.
Aoun met on Thursday with Information Minister Mohsen Bilal and visited the Ummayyad Mosque in Damascus.
Aoun also clarified remarks he had made the previous day, in which he reportedly urged Lebanese to apologize to their compatriots before asking for Syria”s apologies.
"When I called on the Lebanese people to apologize, I meant that they should apologize to the Free Patriotic Movement, not to Syria; but some biased media outlets tried to distort my speech," Aoun said.
On Wednesday, Aoun met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and told reporters afterward that before Lebanon could demand a Syrian apology for atrocities committed during its 15-year military presence, "those in Beirut" should apologize to their own people.
Aoun”s remarks, which were interpreted by some as a call for the Lebanese to apologize to Syria, were met with fierce criticism from the March 14 Forces.
In an interview with Future news television, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt said: "Aoun should have rather asked the Syrian regime to apologize to the Syrian people for the massacres that it has committed in the past; he should have also asked the Syrian regime to apologize for invading Lebanon."
Hizbullah”s number two, Sheikh Naim Qassem, defended Aoun”s visit to Damascus.
"Many of those who visited Syria went there as thieves asking for high positions; as for General Aoun, he went there to give and take for the sake of his country," Qassem said on Thursday.
But MP Nayla Mouawad said the visit was an "insult to Lebanon”s memory and a cover for the Syrian regime”s re-invasion of Lebanon."
In a statement released on Thursday, she accused Aoun of undermining efforts to reach balanced relations between two free, independent and sovereign countries.
"No one asked Aoun to represent Eastern Christians and usurp the role of Bkirki," Mouawad added, referring to Lebanon”s Maronite Church.
Another March 14 MP, Samir Franjieh, accused Aoun on Thursday of trying to "link the Christians with the Syrian-Iranian coalition and isolate them from the Arab and international communities."
Picture: FPM leader Michel Aoun wears a traditional abaya during his visit to the Omayyad mosque in Damascus on Thursday. (AFP/Louai Beshara)