Aoun and Hezbollah Seeking To Corner Sleiman into Not Participating In Parliamentary Elections
March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator and Former MP Fares Soueid said in an interview with the Kuwaiti daily al-Jarida to be published on Monday that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and his MPs are afraid of losing parliamentary seats to the proposed centrist bloc in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and that Hezbollah also fears the creation of the centrist bloc.
Soueid said that Aoun and Hezbollah are attempting to politically corner President Michel Sleiman into not participating in the parliamentary elections. Soeuid explained that if Sleiman participates in the elections, he would gain Christian support at the expense of the Free Patriotic Movement, forcing Hezbollah to contest the elections as a Shia faction and not under the umbrella of a broad March 8 alliance.
He added that Hezbollah might cancel the coming parliamentary elections if it thinks the president is continuing along the direction of political consensus and balancing. He said that the March 14 coalition would insist on holding the elections because they are a “national opportunity to reinforce the views of Lebanese who want a state of peace in contrast to the state of war which [Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed] Hassan Nasrallah wants to build.
Soueid said that March 14 will hold a national conference in Biel in Beirut to announce a preliminary electoral list and a unified political program. Soueid added that the full electoral list will be announced after April 7.
Soueid said that the divisions between March 8 and 14 stretched out through the whole Arab world. He said: “Part of the Arab world wants reconciliation with itself and others, and hopes [to reach] a fair peace. On the other hand, there are security and military groups working for the interests of non Arab countries and pushing for adventures against the Israeli enemy.” Soueid said that he fears Arab internal divisions would serve the interests of regional non-Arab countries. He added that he fears a revived Iranian-Turkish-Israeli alliance.
Soueid concluded that Syria and Iran do not consider Hezbollah a potential party to be a partner in political negotiations. Instead, Hezbollah is used as a political bargaining chip by Iran and Syria when negotiating with America or European states.