Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea criticized the “incompetent” ruling authority on Saturday and indirectly urged President Michel Aoun to step aside.
“If I were the President, I would have resigned,” said Geagea in remarks at a meeting of the Strong Republic bloc.
The LF chief said the entire ruling authority in Lebanon “should step aside,” as the country grapples with an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, amid the paralysis of authorities.
“The sequence of events proved that the ruling group is incompetent and nonviable. The crisis has recently become a crisis of powers of positions while the battle is not a battle of powers and the problem is not between Muslims and Christians, but rather the ruling class that brought the country to where we are,” said Geagea.
He added that “the only solution is to stage early parliamentary elections.”
Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, in a broadcast interview last Thursday, had also called on Aoun to resign.
“Who loves President Aoun would tell him to leave,” he said, adding that if he was president of Lebanon during such a period he would’ve stepped aside.
Franjieh and Geagea’s remarks follow similar statements being made by the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt.
In a televised talk show, Jumblatt mentioned that Aoun had failed and that he had proposed his resignation, but Maronite forces in the country, namely Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai and Geagea, had said it was a “red line.”
In other news, sources close to government formation circles in Lebanon have revealed that political deadlock hindering the creation of a new cabinet is mostly driven by foreign influence, specifically Iran.
Tehran’s disruption of government formation in Lebanon became evident after a series of phone calls undertaken by Patriarch al-Rai.
