Aoun’s office calls those behind accusations “bastards”, didn’t deny he won’t leave Baabda after term ends

The Presidential press office issued a strongly worded statement denying “everything that has been said by politicians and in the media about President Michel Aoun’s staying in Baabda after the end of his term.”

It slammed the the accusations as “mere fabrications,” claiming they are “part of the ongoing scheme to target the Presidency’s position and the president in person.”

Playing on the words of an “old saying,” the Presidential press office added: “The “bastards” are those who accuse the president of saying things he did not say and blame him for actions he did not do.”

Lebanon only twice witnessed a smooth transition of power from one president to a successor in its 79 years of independence, according to a report by Asharq al Awsat.

Presidential terms often end in conflict, vacuum or wars. 

Vacuum appears to be the likely scenario two months before President Aoun’s term ends

In 2014 after the term of president Michel Suleiman ended it took over two years to agree on Aoun’s election as head of state, because his ally the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group insisted on his appointment .

In November 1989 Gen. Aoun rejected an ultimatum to leave the presidential palace, and said he would die fighting, even with ″kitchen knives, sticks and stones.″ 

Aoun told a news conference in his bunker beneath the shell-battered Baabda palace that he was recruiting volunteers to meet a possible assault by the 40,000 Syrian soldiers stationed in Lebanon. 

Elias Hrawi, the newly elected president who gave Aoun the ultimatum, issued a statement at his temporary headquarters in the Bekaa Valley town of Chtoura urging troops to support him.

″Mr. Hrawi has no forces of his own to fight me with,″ Aoun said. ″He will have to rely on Syria’s occupation forces.″

Aoun also opposed Parliament’s approval of a peace plan – worked out by the legislators in weeks of negotiations at Taif, Saudi Arabia – that was designed to give the Muslim majority an equal share of power.

Aoun also denied Syrian charges that he was behind the attack that killed the newly elected president Michel Mouawad, he repeated his own accusation that the Syrians killed Mouawad, who was their staunch ally. 

The conflict culminated on 13 October 1990, when the Syrian Army stormed Baabda Palace and other strongholds of Aoun, killing hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and civilians and ousting Aoun, marking the end of the Lebanese Civil War. Aoun survived and reportedly escaped in his pajamas to the French embassy from where he moved to France to live in exile. He returned to Lebanon in 2005 after the Syrian occupational forces withdrew. from Lebanon following the assassination of former PM Rafic Hariri by Hezbollah operatives . In February 2006 he allied himself with Hezbollah , a close ally of Syria’s dictator Bashar al Assad

So far only Ziad Hayek , the former Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Privatization announced his candidacy for the presidency .

 Hayek served as the Secretary General of Lebanon’s Supreme Council for Privatization from 2006 until he was nominated to be President of the World Bank in February 2019.

The Lebanese Government withdrew Hayek’s nomination in March 2019 due to pressure by the Trump administration . The former president reportedly backed David Malpass , who was selected as 13^th President of the World Bank Group by its Board of Executive Directors on April 5, 2019.

Hayek is currently Vice Chair of the Bureau of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Working Party on PPP (public–private partnership) , Head of the International Center of Excellence in PPP for Ports, President of the World Association of PPP Units & Professionals,  Member of the Board of Trustees of the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik,  Member of the Investment Committee of World YMCA,  and High Commissioner for Lebanon at the World Business Angels Investment Forum.

Hayek speaks 11 languages. He is fluent in Arabic , English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and familiar with Italian, Persian, German, Russian, Hebrew and Aramaic. He has been a resident of Lebanon, Mexico, the US, Bahrain, Gabon and the UK.

In 2014, he was made Officer of the National Order of the Cedar, the highest state order of Lebanon.