BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman is worried that the election of any of Lebanon’s four key Maronite political leaders could trigger acts of revenge.
“As a citizen, I lived through those [leaders’] tough conflicts that seem to never end. I fear the arrival of one [to the presidency] would spark revenge against the other,” Sleiman said in remarks published Tuesday.
“It’s time to stop the hate,” Sleiman said in an interview with the local Beirut daily As-Safir.
Sleiman, whose six-year term ends on May 24, said he did not support any candidate for the presidential seat.
“I am with whoever gets the majority [of votes] in Parliament and with the one who would carry on the march that I started,” he pledged.
Sleiman also dismissed talk of a consensus candidate.
“I don’t care about a consensus candidate. Good intentions exist, but the reality is something else,” he says. “The practice on the ground in recent history did not convince the people.”
“I’m not questioning the eligibility of the candidates,” he said, pointing out that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun was one of them.
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