Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met with Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday evening to discuss the situation in Lebanon , Hezbollah’s press office reported on Tuesday
Aoun’s son-in-law Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil attended the meeting, along with Hezbollah officials Hassan Khalil and Wafiq Safa.
The two leaders reportedly agreed that the 2006 memorandum of understanding between Hezbollah and the FPM should serve as a blueprint for all the parties in Lebanon to help avert strife in the country.
According to the report they were both in agreement over their stances on terrorism and “the inevitability of confronting it with all possible means.
The report did not mention any discussions regarding the presidential election.
The Lebanese parliament failed for the eleventh time in a row to elect a president to replace Michel Suleiman whose term ended on May 25. Each time the parliament was unable to reach a quorum because the March 8 MPs which is led by the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group and Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc boycotted the sessions.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea was the first to announce his candidacy for the presidential office . Aoun has not officially announced his candidacy, claiming there should be a consensus on him first.
Geagea on Sunday addressed the presidential election issue describing the continued presidential void as a “flagrant political crime,” rejecting calls for resorting to “autonomous security” under the excuse of confronting the threat posed by the Islamic State terrorists.
“It is a political crime when some parties seek to ‘behead the republic’ with the aim of becoming its head, and when they take the country hostage in order to get the presidential chair as a ransom,” Geagea said in a possible reference to Aoun who has reportedly been insisting that he should be the next president or no one else .
‘It is unacceptable to take the country hostage in exchange for the presidency as a ransom.’ Geagea said.
‘Talk of amending the Constitution to bring a strong president is a useless argument because the current mechanism of voting has brought in strong presidents since independence,’ Geagea said in reference to Aoun’s proposal to amend article 49 of the Constitution so that the people could directly elect the president instead of the Parliament.
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