The meeting between Franjieh and Bassil is the first since the general secretary of “Hezbollah”, Hassan Nasrallah, brought them together for Iftar last Ramadan, before the parliamentary elections, as well as the presidency of the Republic, which began with the end of Il term of President Michel Aoun at the end of last November Parliament so far 10 sessions have failed to elect a president.
Frangieh is considered one of the most prominent candidates for the presidency, and enjoys the support of the “Shia duo” and the opposition of Bassil, who will not leave a political door without knocking to pass a message to his ally “Hezbollah”. that he is not isolated and has the ability to open up to his adversaries without losing the ability to open communication channels with his ally, should he initiate contact; Because the party is not within the initiative to take the initiative under the pretext that whoever invented the problem must take responsibility for correcting the defect to rectify it, so as to restore the relationship to what it was before he met Nasrallah in a meeting that was not pleasant against the backdrop of his proposal to jointly seek a presidential candidate other than Franjieh. .
Bassil’s openness to the head of the “progressive socialist” Walid Jumblatt has not caused – as a senior political source told Asharq Al-Awsat – anxiety in the party leadership, well aware that its limits ultimately remain limited to the break of the ice and end the rift between them, and will not develop towards opening a new page of cooperation.
In this context, the same source revealed that Basil decided to broaden the range of his contacts with an unconditional opening towards his opponents, which occurred immediately after the communication between him and Hezbollah was cut off, and did not move for him first by changing his political orientation speech, which culminated in attacking them, until after If his relationship with the party suffers a setback, he can only overcome it with his initiative to contact his ally, to turn the page on the dispute that caused due to his goal of Franjieh, though he will not return to the previous state as it was before his fight with Nasrallah.
He stressed that Bassil did not hesitate to respond to a mutual friend’s request, accepting his invitation to have lunch at his table with Mikati, and later to meet with Franjieh, and said that the holder of the initiative to organize the atmosphere to hold these two meetings is a mutual friend of businessmen who had previously sponsored such meetings.
Asharq Al-Awsat learned that Bassil met with Mikati on December 15, that is, on the eve of the ministerial consultative meeting he hosted the following day at the Grand Serail, in which a number of ministers affiliated with former President Aoun and his political team attended, who were among those who boycotted the cabinet meeting held on the 5th of this month.
According to information, the Mikati-Bassil meeting ended without results, and between them there remained the problem of convening the Council of Ministers out of dire need, and that both adhered to their position and did not back down. . And the political source confirms that the horizon is blocked in front of Mikati and Bassil to enter the clearing of the air to overcome the disastrous political crisis with the continuation of the vacancy for the presidency of the republic Basil withdrew from the meeting with Franjieh, and he is limited to exchanging views on a number of issues, with the exception of discussing the crisis existing between them over their presidential options, in light of the war Bassil is waging locally and abroad against his arch ally’s bid for the presidency.
The presidential dish was not present from near or far – according to the same source – at the lunch table, and at the request of Franjieh and Basil in their second meeting, which brought them together after the first meeting, with Nasrallah hosting them at a Ramadan breakfast, which ended with his “prejudice”, and from the point of view of the “Free Patriotic Movement”», in the interest of giving priority to Franjieh’s candidacy, which caused Basil’s annoyance.
It was reported that Franjieh – as the political source claims – suggested removing the presidential election file from the agenda of the meeting he had with Basil. Because it does not fall within the scope of the “dive” off the plate, after having entrusted Nasrallah with the task of assuming, in coordination with the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, the management of the presidential dossier, and this explains his reluctance to enter into a dispute with Basil in his campaigns targeting him during his visits to Qatar and France.
Therefore, Basil tries to open up to Sunnis and Druze. Because it hasn’t found him a partner on the Christian path, while he is waiting for Nasrallah to grant him a “political amnesty”, even if the party will not initiate contact with him, and will be able to respond to the initiative of its ally to contact him, in case he is certain that he crossed the red lines in the last meeting that reunited him with his secretary general, and should have waited a while, instead of unveiling his political cards by suggesting that he look for another presidential candidate other than Franjieh .
