Following the meeting of the Change and Reform bloc, its leader MP Michel Aoun launched an attack against the president and March 14 alliance.
With reference to president Suleiman’s share in the cabinet Aoun said :
“Nothing in the constitution determines the shares of the country’s president in the cabinet. The president abides by the law but he does not rule. Granting the president specific cabinet shares is a violation of the constitution.”
President Suleiman was represented by 3 ministers in the cabinet of outgoing PM Saad Hariri .
Aoun said “The cabinet will be formed on the basis of the [March 8] pattern. Nobody can promise anything but having the politics of March 8 prevail in the new cabinet.”
aoun accused march 14 of trying to disrupt the formation of the cabinet:
“[March 14] wants to stick dynamite in [the upcoming] cabinet [headed by PM-designate Najib Mikati] to make it explode.”
Aoun also attacked the March 14 upcoming rally that marks the 6th anniversary of the Cedar revolution rally and urged the supporters of March 14 to boycott it.
“No one should threaten us by taking to the streets…for their wellbeing, [March 14 supporters] must not participate [in the rally] and must not defend those who robbed them,” Aoun said
Aoun who used to be the the most outspoken critic of Hezbollah and its arms while he was in exile in France , defended Hezbollah and its arms during his meeting with the media
He said that outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri “has lived with Hezbollah’s weapons since 1990, but only now he remembers their existence .”
“If it were not for [Hezbollah’s] arms, where would we be?”, Aoun asked
He added: Outgoing Prime Minister Saad] Hariri and [Future bloc leader MP Fouad] Siniora spoke [in the past two days] about the constitution…[but they are the ones] who staged a coup against the [current] Ministerial Statement, which ‘grants the Resistance the liberty of working and of freeing the captives [in Israel].’
Aoun blamed former PM Fouad Siniora for the 2008 uprising by Hezbollah which resulted in the occupation of western Beirut and the attempted occupation of the Druze stringhold of Mt Lebanon.
” [On May 7, 2008], Hezbollah only reacted [in the streets of Beirut] to defend against the [Fouad Siniora government] assault on the security of the Resistance. This is how we understand it and this is how it happened.”
Hariri vowed on Monday to fight the use of non-state weapons in Lebanon in a “peaceful and democratic way.” Last month, the outgoing premier called for a nation-wide rally in Beirut’s Martyrs Square on March 14 to preserve the principles of the March 14 alliance.
Aoun also attacked the United States and Western countries, telling them that the Lebanese people “do not suffer but from the democracy imposed on them [by the West].”
“The West wants Hariri because he is against the use of arms. If the weapons no longer existed, the [West] would give up on [Hariri].”
Aoun said March 14 has to admit that it was defeated democratically by Hezbollah led March 8 alliance . Aoun denied that MP walid Jumblatt altered his position under threat and said he has been adopting a centrist position since 2009.
He added : ” He voted with us during the parliamentary consultation and we therefore say that it was a constitutional operation and not a coup.”
Aoun who reportedly suffers from various psychological diseases, denied he is a sick man and said: ” There have been repeated rumors regarding by health. I thank God for my good health.”
The Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah brought down PM Saad Hariri’s government on January 12 over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s imminent indictment which is widely expected to implicate Hezbollah members in the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri in 2005 .
Nagib Mikati, who was backed by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies including MP Walid Jumblatt and Mohammad Safadi, was appointed on January 25 by president Michel Suleiman as PM-designate to form and head the next cabinet , giving Hezbollah and its allies increased leverage in the country and provoking widespread protest.
Last month U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton accused Hezbollah of hijacking Lebanon’s democracy.
The Lebanese “deserve to have their democracy respected and their voices heard, and not have one element of their society using the threat of force and the potential of violence to try to achieve political ends,” she said.
This was a possible reference to the alleged Hezbollah threats against MP Walid Jumblatt and his PSP parliament members that forced them to switch allegiance to Hezbollah’s PM candidate
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