Lebanon … Aouni’s escalation off Hariri is ahead of US sanctions against Bassil

Beirut – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”: In light of the notable stagnation of the formation of the next government, perhaps pending the crystallization of the results of the presidential elections in the United States of America, which arose from the implicit accusation of the Aoun circles to the president-designate Saad Hariri of trying to turn back the clock before 2005, when Christian forces failed to do so. The actual opinion when appointing Christian ministers indicates that there is a complex between Hariri on the one hand and between President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement on the other hand, over who has the right to appoint Christian ministers. Aounist circles asked: By what right does Hariri want to participate in the appointment of all Christian ministers, contrary to reality with the ministers of other sects?

These circles do not want to qualify this node as Christianity, but rather describe it as “an evocation of the time of Rustum Ghazali and a contempt for the constitutional fact that the President of the Republic is a partner in the authorship.
In the absence of a serious movement in the composition line, the issue of the imposition of US sanctions on the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Deputy Gebran Bassil, was overshadowed in the domestic scene and its implications for the process of government formation. The US Treasury Department said on its website on Friday that the United States had imposed sanctions on Lebanese Christian politician Gebran Bassil, the son-in-law of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and head of the Free Patriotic Movement.
A person familiar with the upcoming sanctions decision told The Wall Street Journal that blacklisting Basil “would blow up the formation of the government.”
About two weeks ago, a day after Prime Minister Saad Hariri was appointed to form the government, US Under Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Schenker announced that Washington “will continue to impose sanctions on Hezbollah and its allies. Lebanese and those involved in corruption ”, and considered that any new cabinet should implement the necessary reforms. And fight corruption. “
Former Minister Ghassan Atallah responded to the expected sanctions for Bassil and said on Twitter as follows: “We heard about possible sanctions for Minister Basil, but if you think the sanctions are for a person who makes concessions on our country’s wealth, an inch of land and our conviction to reach out to any component. The Lebanese, then from what I used to be following a Bedouin who degrades punishments that do not know us … We are from a school that the world can crush me but does not remove my signature.
Current officials view the sanctions issue as a political issue, denying any connection with Basil to Hezbollah funding.