Aoun Says Cabinet by the End of the Week, Slams “Saudi Guardianship”
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has reassured the Lebanese that the government will be formed by the end of the week but expressed pessimism at what he called lingering "Saudi guardianship."
"We are in the last stages and on the verge of forming" the cabinet, Aoun told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in an interview to be published Saturday.
He expected the government to be formed by the end of the week "if nothing extraordinary happened."
The MP said the negative atmosphere marketed in the past two days is proof that politicians involved in the formation of the government don”t know what”s going on.
Aoun stressed that he was in continuous contact with Premier-designate Saad Hariri denying reports that "contacts have reached a dead-end."
He blamed the mentality of those bickering over top posts for the delay in government formation. Aoun also said his foes were attacking his FPM "as if we are rivals dueling in front of electorates rather than serving them."
Such a bickering "deprives the cabinet of its consensus formula," he added.
Meanwhile, An Nahar daily quoted Aoun as saying on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Taef accord that he doesn”t "regret anything" and would have done the same if he had gone "20 years backwards."
He said Syrian hegemony ended in 2005 with the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. However, "Saudi guardianship remained and Americans came to take over Syrian guardianship."
"The defense ministry and security ministries have been given to certain sides and the finance and economy portfolios to another side. It is forbidden for us to approach them," he lamented.
However, "we still seek to regain our sovereignty and form a government," the FPM leader added.