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Aoun, regrets being president, fears chaos as crisis bites: Al Jadeed TV

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File photo : President Michel Aoun holds a televised press conference at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut ( Nov, 20 , 20)

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday the country could face chaos before it can recover from a financial meltdown.

Crushed under a mountain of debt and decades of graft, Lebanon has plunged into its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Aoun, a former army commander, and Saad al-Hariri, a three-time premier who was designated prime minister in October, have been locked in a standoff over the makeup of a new cabinet as the crisis worsens.

Scenes of shoppers brawling over goods, protesters blocking roads, and shuttered businesses are now commonplace.

“I will hand over the country better than when it was handed to me … but I fear the cost will be very high, ‮)‬there‮(‬ may be chaos before that,” Aoun said in comments published by Lebanese television channel al-Jadeed. Aoun’s term expires in 2022.

The president, whose party run by his son-in-law leads the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, told a reporter at al-Jadeed he feared the dangers looming over Lebanon threatened its very existence.

The currency has lost most of its value, making more than half the population poor. Last August’s port blast, which devastated parts of Beirut and killed 211 people, deepened the country’s misery.

The deadlock has persisted since Aoun warned in September that the country was going “to hell” without a new government.

Foreign donors have made clear they will not bail out Lebanon before its leaders agree a new cabinet that must launch reforms.

Wishes he was a farmer

“I wish I inherited my grandfather’s orchard and didn’t take up the presidency,” Jadeed cited Aoun as saying on Wednesday.

Many in Lebanon are of the belief that Aoun never assumed the responsibility of the presidency of Lebanon , instead he has been acting as a rubber stamp for Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah . Nasrallah controls all the 3 branches of government in Lebanon; the presidency , thru his ally General Aoun, the parliament thru his alliance with Amal leader Speaker Nabih Berri and the government thru his hand picked caretaker PM Hassan Diab

(REUTERS)/YL

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2 responses to “Aoun, regrets being president, fears chaos as crisis bites: Al Jadeed TV”

  1. Arzna Avatar
    Arzna

    5 years after your failed presidency you are telling us you regret getting into this position and wish you were a farmer instead . You should have quit from day one after finding out that Hezbollah was primarily interested in using you and your position and won’t let you make any decision. But you were blinded by your ego . You should never have been made the president , you destroyed your country, robbed and starved its people. You are the worst ever president

    1. No Avatar
      No

      No real leader speaks that way while in office and with all the power necessary to make the necessary changes, however delayed they may be. Only a weak person who is lost and incapable of finding the North Star laments for someone else to provide the direction of True North.

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