Montreal: A week into the presidential vacuum in Lebanon, Prime Minister Tammam Salam declared the obvious when he reiterated that the country passed through “extraordinary” circumstances and called on the political establishment to “stage [the election] in an exceptional way”.
For his part, the Telecommunications Minister, Boutros Harb, slammed the head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the stealthy candidate Michel Aoun, as he accused the former general of full responsibility for the ongoing deadlock. “Aoun refuses to engage in any electoral process if he isn’t 100 per cent sure that he will be elected” as the new head of state, Harb said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily Al Sharq Al Awsat on Sunday. He lashed out at the March 8 alliance, saying: “The problem is not with the March 14 coalition but with Aoun and his allies.”
Of course, Aoun was not a recluse during this first week after President Michel Sulaiman’s mandate came to a close and, according to an Al Jumhuriyyah report, asserted that he was the “sole strong presidential candidate that should be voted as head of state.” While that part of his declaration was par for the course, his blatant accusations that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia prevented his election shocked observers, many of whom could find no evidence to back such an assertion.
Even worse were Aoun’s pontifications on regional developments, especially on the preparations for presidential elections in Syria — which witnessed pro-Al Assad rallies in several Lebanese cities this week — that, without a doubt, raise the ire of many. According to Al Jumhuriyyah, Aoun allegedly expressed the wish that the Syrian President Bashar Al Assad deserved a Nobel Prize for combating terrorism, and added that he supported Al Assad “because he opposes his alternative”.
Week two in the Post-Sulaiman era was bound to add fuel to the fodder, as March 8 and March 14 minions honed their well-rehearsed talking points; Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Junblatt travelled to Paris to meet the Future Movement’s Sa’ad Hariri and presumably negotiate some more; and various deputies filled the airwaves with rehashed but impeccably politicised accusations against each other.
Lebanon was plunged in the presidential vacuum with leading parties digging a deeper hole that jeopardised the political system and, perhaps, the unity of the country.
