Army Commander General Joseph Aoun (R) and MP Fouad Makhzoumi
Lebanon’s Al-Nashra website reported on Wednesday that that according to sources in Arab and international capitals, they are seeking to impose the election of Army Commander General Joseph Aoun as President of the Republic, and following his election they want MP Fouad Makhzoumi designated as the prime minister to form and head the new government.
A concerned source told Al-Nashra that the scenario of distributing powers and administrative appointments is now on the tables of capitals interested in Lebanon. He added that “a number of MPs have been informed of the features of the new phase that the international community wants, different from all previous phases, and moving Lebanon from a regional axis to an international axis that revives it economically and controls its regional stability, far from the conflicts that Lebanon was paying the price for, the latest of which was the war with Israel.”
Makzoumi, 72 is a Lebanese billionaire, a businessman and politician. He is the founder of the National Dialogue Party and member of the Renewal Bloc in the Lebanese Parliament.
In 2017, it was reported by The Guardian that François Fillon, the French presidential candidate, had allegedly been paid $50,000 to arrange a meeting between Makhzoumi, the Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Patrick Pouyane, the chief executive of the French multinational company Total Energy
In 1984, Makhzoumi co-founded Future Pipe Industries, and was its CEO from 1986 to 2003. FPI is a Dubai based fiberglass pipe system design and manufacturing company active in the oil and gas, water, and industrial sectors.
Foreign interference
In the past, during the days of Syrian occupation the scene of the presidential election sessions was fixed, as the role of the MPs was to “rubber stamp” the “password” that reached them from the Syrians, thus turning the sessions of the Parliament into “folklore”, with no role other than translating the decision that was taken outside the borders.
Many thought that this scene would never be restored, not only after the withdrawal of the Syrians from Lebanon following the “Cedar Revolution” in 2005, but also after the recent dramatic developments witnessed in Syria and the fall of the regime there. However, what the Lebanese capital Beirut witnessed in the past few days brought back memories of this scene, despite the vast differences, and raised question marks once again about the “democracy” of the electoral process and the password, or perhaps passwords, surrounding the entitlement.
In just a few days, many international envoys arrived in Lebanon, starting with the Qatari envoy, to the Saudi envoy who came to break a long-standing rift with Lebanon, passing through the American envoy who expanded his interests from the ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel to the presidential elections that seemed to be part of this agreement, and the arrival of the French envoy who decided not to miss the opportunity, after touring Lebanon repeatedly over the past two years, trying to push for the election of Hezbollah’s presidential candidate Suleiman Franjieh who quit the race on Wednesday
These envoys have been holding separate meetings with political forces and parliamentary blocs, in which they seemed to have a unified “password” regarding the name of the presidential candidate supported by the Arab and international community, even though they initially avoided naming anyone
“The inability of the Lebanese politicians to decide what is best for Lebanon is the main reason behind the foreign interference in Lebanon’s affairs. None of these politicians really cares about Lebanon”, Ali Hussein , a Lebanese political analyst told Ya Libnan.
“What is in it for me is all what they care about “, Hussein added and concluded by saying” this is why Lebanon is not being run like a sovereign state , its is run by the political Mafia like a farm”
Al Nashra, Ya Linnan