US sanctions highlight differences between Bassil and Aoun adviser

The case of Antoine Haddad, former adviser to the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, reacted in the context of his speech about the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, the representative Gebran Bassil, who in turn accused him of treason, without naming him, in the press conference that he dedicated last Sunday to respond to the United States sanctions. Tax on it.
In response to Haddad’s statements in the media, especially those related to the demarcation of the border with Israel, the Presidency of the Republic said, in a statement yesterday, that it had terminated the contract with him last month and prevented him from entering the Presidential Palace and therefore “ no longer has any of the files it has. ” He spoke about it in his statements to the media during the last two days, and (not) any other file related to the presidency, ”according to the statement.
The response to Haddad, who was part of the team that worked on the issue of border demarcation, was not limited to the Presidency of the Republic. Rather, the Director General of the Presidency, Dr. Antoine Choucair, who had also spoken about Haddad, specifically on the issue of border demarcation, issued a statement accusing the former consultant of raising issues other than Constitutional and illegal.
Dr. Choucair’s statement said: “During the last two days, the media have published interviews and statements by the former public relations adviser to the President of the Republic, Antoine Haddad, in which he addressed various issues; Among them is the issue of the demarcation of the southern maritime borders, and other points related to them, I was mentioned more than once in your speech on this subject. He added: ‘On this matter; I am interested in highlighting that Haddad deliberately, during his time in the Presidency of the Republic and his use of the file on the demarcation of the maritime border, to request unconstitutional and illegal matters, was pushing to follow them and insisting that they be contrary to all the norms and current regulations. This led me to propose to refuse to violate the laws and the constitution, especially since the directives and decisions of the president were not in accordance with what Haddad asked in terms of illegal and unconstitutional issues.
Haddad is known to be one of the founders of the Free Patriotic Movement and lives in the United States of America, where he enjoys extensive political relations. His last media speech in which he spoke for the first time about his relationship with Bassil and what he described as his control over the decisions and decrees issued by Aoun, came after the head of the Free Patriotic Movement accused him of treason, in his press conference in which he responded to the sanctions imposed by the United States against him, promising to hold him accountable. Haddad responded that he would file a lawsuit against Basil.
Haddad’s first response was through a brief statement before going out in media interviews and speaking in detail about the stage of his work as a consultant, and Bassil’s role in everything that was happening. His statement read: “The media have reported that I am referring to the words of the president of the (Free Patriotic Movement) about his betrayal. And although I deplore the inclusion of my name in this hasty news, I remind you that I was in charge of the file that delimited the borders by the President of the Republic, and had no role or mission in terms of communicating with the US administration in the sanctions file.
Regarding his interviews with the media, Haddad revealed a lot of information directly related to Bassil, saying that the President of the Republic did not issue any decree without the latter’s approval, and that on occasions he would withdraw from them if Bassil rejected them, adding that two of these decrees are related to the decree. border. He added: “I was in the team that worked on the border demarcation decree, and I left the task because we had established a line to recover all the territorial waters to which Lebanon is entitled, but Bassil proposed another line to recover half of the area”.
Regarding the sanctions, Haddad said: “We did many things to defend Bassil, for the sake of President Aoun, but the answers that came to us from the US administration were that he was a liar and corrupt … and if they had not had evidence of their corruption, they would not have imposed the sanctions ”.