“Awa” … what was not reported about Bassil’s visit to Bkirki, and a question that worries the Patriarch

The Al-Akhbar newspaper wrote under the headline “Basil’s shepherd: not giving up the rights of Christians”: “The crisis of forming the government remains and is expanding. And although no one expected a” miracle “from the planned visit of the French President Emmanuel Macron to Beirut, “would have been a factor.” Auxiliary. ”Informed sources confirmed that on the eve of the canceled visit, the French contacted Presidents Michel Aoun, Saad Hariri and the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, in an attempt to dismantle the contract on the number of ministers and the distribution of portfolios. The President of the Republic insists on obtaining the interior portfolio “because Hariri wants to appoint There is a Christian on his side, and Aoun considers that he is the first to appoint Christian ministers. ” Hariri also refuses to grant the president the authority of the Ministry of Justice “after the judicial practices of Aoun’s team in various files. Other sources confirm that Hariri’s insistence on justice stems from fear of opening liability files. Administrations and institutions maintained by their relatives.

Faced with the stalemate in the authorship deliberations, the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai visited Baabda yesterday, after receiving the president-designate the day before yesterday, in an attempt to mediate to make a hole in the obstruction wall. The declaration of the Patriarch, after the visit, that “I did not notice the attachment of the president to the third-party obstructor” was notable, underlining the need for an understanding between the president of the Republic and the designated president.
Later, Basilio went to the patriarchal building. The meeting, which lasted about two hours, with the pastor, and which included a lunch, witnessed, according to sources, “an in-depth discussion” in the government’s file and on the “need to preserve the national alliance.” At the meeting, Bassil answered the pastor’s questions and answered “a point” to what the president-designate had brought to Bkerke two days ago.

Regarding the composition process, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement confirmed “with the facts that Hariri appointed the Christian ministers in the formation that led to the Baabda Palace, contrary to the latter’s assertions that the names included in his formation had They have been selected from a list that the President of the Republic previously presented to him. ” And he stressed that Aoun “did not give any name to Hariri. He mentioned qualified names for the minister during the meetings with the designated President, then which was the last one but he chose some of them, considering that the President was the one who proposed them. Bassil indicated that the matter “is not related to the proposed names, and some of them may be good, but with reference to the constitution, in which article 53 stipulates that the prime minister forms a government with the president of the republic, not that the prime minister name the formation and transfer it to the president of the republic to be fingerprinted. He also pointed out that “what is happening now is an attempt to take away the title of head of state from the president of the republic and make him president of the Republic of the current only, by limiting the conversation with him to a part of the Christian quota instead of having his central role, and his opinion in all the names of all the sects, and in the ministerial distribution AND his full participation in the formation of the government, which is not limited to one action. In this a coup of logic of the association and the position of the presidency. In addition, “there is an attempt to hit what we have previously shown that the president of the republic has a stake in the government that has nothing to do with the party he leads.” Here, Basil al-Ra’i asked: “Our Master, we have grown weary after Taif to reestablish the association. Do you want us to renounce the rights of Christians?” Then the pastor immediately replied, “Awa!”

The same sources confirmed that the sponsor “understood the facts presented by Basil, and was surprised that they were different from what Hariri told him, and asked Basil to tell the public that the movement does not cling to any portfolio or participation and that the third-party obstructor did not ask.
According to sources, “a question that worries Bkerke: if the movement and the forces are out of government, which will probably remain until the end of the era, who will rule in case a president cannot be elected after the end of the mandate of President Michel Aoun? “. Read the full article. Press here.