Aoun , Berri accuse each other of weakening the state institutions

Lebanon Speaker Nabih Berri and President Michel Aoun accused each other of being responsible for weakening the state institutions.

“It is true that extending the parliament term has harmed the state institutions, but obstructing the election of a president was even worse,” Berri replied to Aoun.

Aoun who spoke from Bkirki during a visit to Patriarch Beshara al-Rai on Thursday said: “The extension of the parliament term has harmed the state institutions,” in reference to the 2014 decision of lawmakers to extend the mandate of the parliament until June 2017 which Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc has rejected.

For his part, Berri was referring to the presidential vacuum that lasted for over two and a half years because of the Free Patriotic Movement’s boycott of parliamentary sessions to elect a President.

Aoun is the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement.