Hezbollah introduced that it could again Maronite Christian politician Suleiman Frangieh, who beforehand served as a Cabinet minister, to change into the nation’s subsequent president.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stated Monday that he met with Gebran Bassil, the chief of the Free Patriotic Movement.
“I advised Bassil that Hezbollah sees him and Suleiman Frangieh as candidates for the presidency,” Nasrallah stated in a speech.
Bassil has not utilized to run for the publish to switch former President Michel Aoun, who left the workplace in October 2022 after a six-year time period.
“The pure candidate that we again within the presidential elections and has the specs that we think about is minister Suleiman Frangieh,” Nasrallah stated.
The Hezbollah chief stated he has began a dialogue with allies to again Frangieh for the presidency.
Frangieh, 57, served in a number of ministerial posts, together with well being and housing.
Despite Hezbollah’s help, Frangieh nonetheless wants the backing of different blocs – help that would show arduous to get.
Frangieh, a Maronite Christian, doesn’t have the backing of the most important Christian blocs in parliament and lots of within the Western-backed coalition oppose him due to his alliance with Hezbollah and his shut private friendship with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Frangieh, 57, and armed forces commander Gen. Joseph Aoun, are the highest candidates for president. Hezbollah is believed to oppose the military chief’s bid for president as a result of he enjoys backing by the U.S.
Lebanon’s deeply divided parliament has did not elect a president throughout 11 classes held for the reason that time period of President Michel Aoun, additionally a Hezbollah ally, led to late October.
Nasrallah stated Hezbollah won’t settle for that international international locations impose a president on Lebanon and also will not settle for a international “veto” towards any candidate, an obvious reference to Frangieh.
Nasrallah’s announcement got here days after Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri additionally stated he backs Frangieh for president. Frangieh has not publicly introduced he’s working for workplace.
Despite the help of Hezbollah and Berri’s Amal Movement, the 2 largest Shiite teams within the nation, Frangieh will nonetheless want the backing of different parliamentary blocs as no coalition has a majority within the 128-seat legislature.
Frangieh stated lately that his shut alliances with Hezbollah and Assad’s authorities give him a bonus towards different candidates as he can converse with them to make concessions for the great of Lebanon.
According to Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the president should be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim. The parliament and Cabinet seats are equally divided between Christians and Muslims.
Frangieh, the chief of the Marada Movement, hails from a well known political household from northern Lebanon. His grandfather – the person whose identify he carries – was a former Lebanese president. When he was 13, his father, Tony Frangieh, was killed alongside together with his mom and sister in an notorious 1978 bloodbath perpetrated by rival Christian Maronite forces within the mountain resort of Ehden.
In 2018, Frangieh reconciled with Christian chief Samir Geagea who led the raid in Ehden however was critically wounded and withdrew from the operation.
Geagea, whose Lebanese Forces Party has the most important bloc in parliament, is strongly against Frangieh turning into president and vowed to do all he can to forestall him from acquiring the publish.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
