BEIRUT: Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk visited Kataeb Party chief Amine Gemayel and the Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun Tuesday, briefing them on Monday’s Hariri-Rai meeting in Rome.
Although he made no mention of the presidential matter in his comment after the meetings, political sources said that Machnouk’s visits were to inform the two party leaders about the outcome of Future Movement leader Saad Hariri’s meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai the day before.
“Today is a day off,” Machnouk said as he walked out from Aoun’s Rabieh residence early Tuesday, implying that he did not wish to talk to reporters about the meeting’s content.
In what appeared as a move to rule out the possibility of a March 14 candidate to the presidency and clear the way for a compromise candidate with the rival March 8 coalition, Hariri said after his Monday meeting with Rai that consensus was the only way to end the 5-month-old deadlock.
After meeting Gemayel, Machnouk said that he had discussed with the former president “many political matters, including the Syrian refugee camps.”
Machnouk explained that the Parliament term’s extension was also discussed and said that the “current circumstances do not allow the conduction of elections on time.”
He also expressed doubt that presidential elections could be held before the end of the Parliament’s term next month, “due to the regional contradictions’ negative impact on the possibility of holding the presidential elections in Lebanon.”
He also explained that he delivered an invitation for Gemayel to attend the second memorial ceremony for late Maj. Gen. Wisam al-Hasan at the UNESCO Palace by the end of this week. Then the chief of the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch, Hasan was assassinated in a bomb blast in Ashrafieh on Oct. 19, 2012.
Also Tuesday, Machnouk met with former President Michel Sleiman, who stressed on the necessity to stick to Tripoli's security plan and to not show any leniency that terrorist groups could exploit.
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