Beirut: Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) head Michel Aoun has repeated his opposition to a possible extension of Army chief General Jean Qahwaji’s term in office.

Speaking with broadcaster George Salibi on Al Jadeed television network (New TV) on Sunday evening, Aoun said that extending Qahwaji’s term would be “a political and not a military deal”.

He said that, while Speaker Nabih Berri’s call to convene a legislative session was legitimate, Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc would boycott these sessions because of disagreements over its “agenda”.

“My political stance is boycotting the session for reasons related to its agenda, such as extending the term of the army commander and other items,” Aoun said.

He said competence was the most important prerequisite for the post and bemoaned the government’s inability to find a replacement in an institution that fielded 1,500 officers.

According to a 2009 study by Aram Nerguizian, however, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) fielded 250 Generals.

General Qahwaji, who was appointed by the Cabinet to his current post on August 30, 2008, is scheduled to retire in September 2013 unless the retirement age of 60 is either amended or revoked. Beyond ongoing controversies in Sidon and elsewhere that troubled the Qahwaji tenure, the country’s political elites have no objections to such an extension, provided that all other retirements, including that of the former head of the Internal Security Forces, General Ashraf Rifi, are also approved.

Aoun however volunteered the name of “Brigadier-General Chamel Roukoz,” who “has a CV” that could be reviewed by executive authorities “should they decide to appoint him as army commander”.

“And this has nothing to do with him being my son-in-law,” he said.

Brigadier-General Roukoz heads the Lebanese Commando Regiment — known in Arabic as the Fawj Al Maghawir — the LAF’s elite Special Forces. Aoun’s other son-in-law, Jibran Basil, is Minister of Energy and Water.

Aoun, for his part, was unapologetic when he added that, in the wake of the LAF’s latest sacrifices in Sidon, it was still essential to place it on par with Hezbollah.

“How can we disarm the resistance while the army is not well-equipped?,” he asked.

He insisted that the LAF was not prepared to defend the country against Israeli aggression, which was the reason why he saw value in Hezbollah.

Aoun, who is a former Lebanese Army Commander, called for the disarmament of all militias between 1990 and 2005.

This was the primary platform argument during his 2005 elections as discussed in the FPM’s “orange book.”

In the heated Al Jadeed interview, which included several vulgarities, Aoun denounced the tape allegedly showing the dead body of Nader Al Bayumi, one of the worshipers at the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque formerly occupied by Salafist Shaikh Ahmad Al Assir.

He claimed that the tape was a fabrication “because no one had time to torture anyone.”