BEIRUT: The alliance between the Lebanese Forces and the Future Movement still holds, despite differing opinions over the new Cabinet, MP Ahmad Fatfat said Friday.
“We are allies with the Lebanese Forces," Fatfat reaffirmed following a two-hour meeting with LF leader Samir Geagea in the latter’s Maarab residence. "It was necessary to reconsider the current political stage after the formation of the new government, which we had hoped the Lebanese Forces would have been a part of."
Fatfat added that his Future Movement respects the LF's decision to stand firm against taking part in the new government with Hezbollah.
After initially refusing, the Future Movement joined the new Cabinet with Hezbollah, while the LF announced it would not join an all-embracing government unless Hezbollah withdraws from Syria.
Fatfat went on to say that the policy statement should be based on the Baabda Declaration, affirming Lebanon’s neutrality toward regional conflicts, especially the war in Syria. The policy statement should also align with the priorities laid out by the National Charter unveiled by the Maronite Church earlier this month, which calls for holding the presidential elections on time and urges political rivals to place national interests above personal ones.
Fatfat ruled out the tripartite formula of “the Army, the people, and the resistance” included in previous policy statements and insisted on by Hezbollah. Several figures from the Future bloc would support the withdrawal of the coalition’s ministers from the Cabinet if the policy statement were to adopt this formula, he said.
“ Hezbollah has realized that the party's intervention in Syria is imposing great threats on it and its popular base,” said Fatfat. “We are at the doorstep of a historical stage that compels us to act responsibly and take straightforward stances.”
“If there is no real intention to safeguard Lebanon from its crises then the national unity cabinet doesn't exist,” he warned.
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