Aoun Adopts Wait-and-See Approach on Cabinet, Says Sfeir has Joined the Lebanese Forces
Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun snapped back at the Maronite Patriarch on Wednesday saying Nasrallah Sfeir has joined the Lebanese Forces.
"He has joined the Lebanese Forces and (LF MP) Antoine Zahra," Aoun said about Sfeir”s criticism of attempts to give cabinet seats to candidates who had lost the parliamentary elections.
"Perhaps there is a question mark on the appointment of those who were defeated in elections since their reappointment would be against the will of the people," Sfeir said in Bkirki on Wednesday.
Turning to the issue of government formation, the FPM leader said: "If our presence (in the cabinet) is not necessary, then let them form the government without us."
"We don”t want to challenge anyone. That”s why we said that dialogue is the road to salvation," Aoun said following a meeting of his Change and Reform bloc in Rabiyeh.
"We will see if there will be something new" in Saad Hariri”s consultations with parliamentary blocs "and then we”ll take a stance," the MP told reporters in the first reaction to Hariri”s reappointment as PM-designate.
About widespread corruption in the country, the MP said that embezzlement and bribery increased. "We thought that following the Syrian army”s withdrawal, such corruption would end."
The widest corruption was in vote buying in the last parliamentary elections, Aoun told reporters.