Member of the Strong Republic (Lebanese Forces) parliamentary bloc MP Wehbe Katicha accused on Thursday head of the Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil of “inflaming the atmosphere with the LF and
the Socialist Progressive Party (PSP) by his insistence on containing the representation of both parties in the next cabinet.”
“I feel sorry that Lebanon is currently witnessing the tenure of a President that accepts to relinquish his powers to another person,” Katisha told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The MP warned that by shifting his presidential powers to his son-in-law, the President would take the country to a big political crisis.
“Continuing to hinder the birth of the new government would bring about an economic breakdown, with uncalculated negative results on Lebanon,” he said.
Katicha said the meeting held lately between the President and LF leader Samir Geagea, at the request of Aoun, aimed to cool down the atmosphere between the LF and the FPM without discussing the file of the government formation.
A similar meeting was held with PSP leader Walid Jumblatt, who met with the President without tackling issues related to the next cabinet lineup.
Currently, tension rules the relationship of both Christian parties, threatening to hit the “Maarab agreement,” which folded a page of political and military conflicts that emerged between the two sides since 1989.
Qatisha said Bassil’s behavior was causing such tension. He accused the caretaker Foreign Minister of trying to contain the representation of several parties in the next Cabinet.
“Bassil is trying to minimize the LF ministerial representation, to control the Mustaqbal Movement and the PSP by imposing Sunni ministers on PM-designate Saad Hariri and Druze ministers on leader Walid Jumblatt and to contain all other political elements that could contradict his aspiration for hegemony,” the MP said.
