General Aoun Is Not At Ease with Christian Public Opinion
Environment Minister Antoine Karam said that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun’s visit to Syria was “dramatic” and he would not have done it had he been at ease with the Christian public opinion. He added that the visit was for electoral purposes. He said that Aoun was used to skipping over problems and he was providing coverage for the Syrian regime.
In an interview with Future News television on Monday, Karam said that Aoun assumed that citizens had no memory. He added that the Christian community was extremely cautious of Syria and that a foreign country could not inaugurate Aoun as a Christian leader. “Had Aoun been a serious Christian leader, he would not have visited Syria, particularly at this time,” he said. Karam added that the number of people who voted for Aoun would decrease in the 2009 parliamentary elections, especially among independents who voted for him on the principle of sovereignty during the 2005 parliamentary elections.
Karam commented on Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir’s request that Christian youth join the Lebanese army, saying that the government’s previous practices against the Christian youth created a distance between them and the state’s institutions.
Karam said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s expected visit to Lebanon was unrelated to the establishment of Lebanese-Syrian diplomatic relations. He said that France continuously attempted to have the Syrian regime change its behavior toward Lebanon. The United States’ policy toward Lebanon, he also said, was not related specifically to the perspective of incumbent president. He added that the US, as well as the international community, would totally reject the prospect of Iranian nuclear weapons.