Beirut |
October 11, 2007
Aoun After the Bkirki Meeting: No Faction Controls Majority to Elect President
Beirut - October 11, 2007
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun stressed Thursday after a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir that no political faction in Lebanon control's the majority in parliament to elect a president.
"We are ready to meet the other side to discuss positive ideas … Our proposals focus around respecting the constitution and consensus" on a presidential candidate, Aoun told reports at Bkirki, seat of the Maronite church.
Aoun and ex-Mp Suleiman Franjieh "briefed the patriarch and the bishops on "all the developments that lead us to where we are," the FPM leader said.
"The meeting will be followed up tomorrow with the other side, we hope a bottom line for solving the crisis could be reached," Aoun added.
"We are sending a message of hope to the Lebanese and we are prepared to cooperate with all (sides)to find an exit out of the crisis," he added.
An attempt by Bkirki to reconcile feuding Christians ahead of a presidential election faced a rough start when a meeting with Christian opposition leaders started 10 hours later than scheduled.
Aoun and Franjieh arrived in Bkirki after dusk and went into a meeting with Sfeir.
The meeting, originally set for Thursday morning, was postponed and no official explanation for the delay was available.
After a one-hour meeting with the bishops Sfeir hinted that Bkirki was not behind the move to reschedule the meeting with Aoun and Franjieh.
"Ask others" about the change of schedule, an unhappy Sfeir told reporters.
A meeting scheduled for Friday with pro-government Christian leaders was still on, Sfeir stressed.
Earlier, secretary of Bkirki Father Michel Aweet announced that Thursday's meeting had been postponed to an unknown date, while MP Ibrahim Kenaan, secretary of the Change and Reform Parliamentary bloc, insisted the gathering was still on.
Kenaan's assurances and the arrival of Aoun's personal photographer at Bkirki around 10 am, shortly before the meeting was due to take place, led journalists to believe that the talks would nevertheless be held later in the day.
But after Sfeir's announcement, journalists were asked to leave Bkirki.
Voice of Lebanon's Bkirki correspondent had earlier said she believed the delay was a camouflage for security reasons. VOL quoted sources with the Free Patriotic Movement as saying that Aoun would dispatch a delegate to Bkirki within the next few hours to set a new date for the meeting.
The daily An Nahar said Sfeir was expected to stress in Thursday's meeting the need to take part in the upcoming presidential election to prevent a constitutional vacuum.
It said Aoun, in turn, was likely to put forth ways to reach a "unified Christian view."
An Nahar said that for this reason Aoun would call for a dialogue to discuss various political, financial and economic issues, in addition to topics dealing with U.N. Security Council resolutions and ways of implementing them, Palestinian refugee camps and Hizbullah arms.
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun stressed Thursday after a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir that no political faction in Lebanon control's the majority in parliament to elect a president.
"We are ready to meet the other side to discuss positive ideas … Our proposals focus around respecting the constitution and consensus" on a presidential candidate, Aoun told reports at Bkirki, seat of the Maronite church.
Aoun and ex-Mp Suleiman Franjieh "briefed the patriarch and the bishops on "all the developments that lead us to where we are," the FPM leader said.
"The meeting will be followed up tomorrow with the other side, we hope a bottom line for solving the crisis could be reached," Aoun added.
"We are sending a message of hope to the Lebanese and we are prepared to cooperate with all (sides)to find an exit out of the crisis," he added.
An attempt by Bkirki to reconcile feuding Christians ahead of a presidential election faced a rough start when a meeting with Christian opposition leaders started 10 hours later than scheduled.
Aoun and Franjieh arrived in Bkirki after dusk and went into a meeting with Sfeir.
The meeting, originally set for Thursday morning, was postponed and no official explanation for the delay was available.
After a one-hour meeting with the bishops Sfeir hinted that Bkirki was not behind the move to reschedule the meeting with Aoun and Franjieh.
"Ask others" about the change of schedule, an unhappy Sfeir told reporters.
A meeting scheduled for Friday with pro-government Christian leaders was still on, Sfeir stressed.
Earlier, secretary of Bkirki Father Michel Aweet announced that Thursday's meeting had been postponed to an unknown date, while MP Ibrahim Kenaan, secretary of the Change and Reform Parliamentary bloc, insisted the gathering was still on.
Kenaan's assurances and the arrival of Aoun's personal photographer at Bkirki around 10 am, shortly before the meeting was due to take place, led journalists to believe that the talks would nevertheless be held later in the day.
But after Sfeir's announcement, journalists were asked to leave Bkirki.
Voice of Lebanon's Bkirki correspondent had earlier said she believed the delay was a camouflage for security reasons. VOL quoted sources with the Free Patriotic Movement as saying that Aoun would dispatch a delegate to Bkirki within the next few hours to set a new date for the meeting.
The daily An Nahar said Sfeir was expected to stress in Thursday's meeting the need to take part in the upcoming presidential election to prevent a constitutional vacuum.
It said Aoun, in turn, was likely to put forth ways to reach a "unified Christian view."
An Nahar said that for this reason Aoun would call for a dialogue to discuss various political, financial and economic issues, in addition to topics dealing with U.N. Security Council resolutions and ways of implementing them, Palestinian refugee camps and Hizbullah arms.
