Beirut: Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and Druze leader Waleed Junblatt noted on Sunday that the presidential chances of the Marada Movement’s pro-Syrian Sulaiman Franjieh have “started to collapse” and he was now willing to endorse Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michael Aoun for the post.
Franjieh’s chances probably ended after the Minister of the Interior, Nouhad Mashnouq, revealed that the UK, the US and Saudi Arabia played key roles in his nomination.
“Franjieh went too far during his trip to Paris and his chances to reach the presidency have started to collapse,” Junblatt said in an interview with the LBCI television station, referring to Franjieh’s Paris meeting with Future Movement leader Sa‘ad Hariri, though he added that the real roadblock was in Damascus because “Syria cannot accept a Lebanese president whose policies are not guaranteed”.
Junblatt was highly critical of Ashraf Rifi, who stunned all establishment parties with an unprecedented victory in last month’s municipal election in Tripoli, concluding that the Hariri machine’s failure — even when backed by former Prime Minister Najeeb Mikati and such figures as Mohammad Safadi and Faisal Karami — was “the beginning of Sulaiman Franjieh’s fall in the presidential race”.
“Let’s see where will Rifi take Tripoli,” Junblatt said, with his trademark irony.
In a moment of confusion or, perhaps, a carefully calculated declaration, Junblatt “wonder[ed] if there was a foreign role in Rifi’s movement in Tripoli”, which left the impression that he was making a reference to Saudi Arabia or possibly Turkey.
“Some reports have said that Jama‘al Al Islamiyyah voted for Rifi’s list in Tripoli and, if confirmed, this means that Turkey is settling its scores,” Junblatt suggested.
Junblatt said he rejected attempts to the country into an arena for “settling scores between Iran and the Arabs”.
He called on Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to stop his slanderous attacks on Saudi Arabia, insisting that “it is not our job in Lebanon to topple the House of Saud”.
Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Sulaiman’s term expired on May 24, 2014.
Hariri and the March 14 coalition initially backed the LF’s Samir Geagea, but launched a proposal to nominate Franjieh for the presidency in late 2015.
Hezbollah opposed this move and stood, instead, with Aoun even if Franjieh was the more pro-Syrian candidate.
