BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said presidential election talks with the Future Movement came to a halt after Riyadh ruled him out as a candidate.
“This dialogue has stopped after Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faysal put a veto on me,” Aoun said in remarks published Monday by the local daily As-Safir.
He was responding to a question on the progress of talks between him and Future Movement head Saad Hariri.
Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Sleiman's term ended in May with lawmakers botching several attempts to elect a successor over lack of consensus.
Commenting on Parliament’s extension, Aoun said the real purpose behind the move was to “prevent changing the current [parliamentary] majority, thus keeping control of the presidential election.”
Aoun stressed “strategic” ties between the FPM and Hezbollah despite their opposing views on the parliamentary extension.
Hezbollah MPs voted in favor of the extension of Parliament’s mandate until 2017, while the FPM boycotted the vote and have vowed to raise an appeal against it.
Comments
Your feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article.
Disclaimer: Comments submitted by third parties on this site are the sole responsibility of the individual(s) whose content is submitted. The Daily Star accepts no responsibility for the content of comment(s), including, without limitation, any error, omission or inaccuracy therein. Please note that your email address will NOT appear on the site.
Alert: If you are facing problems with posting comments, please note that you must verify your email with Disqus prior to posting a comment. follow this link to make sure your account meets the requirements. (http://bit.ly/vDisqus)
No comments:
Post a Comment