The head of the “Free Patriotic Movement,” Representative Gebran Bassil, closed the door to the possibility of reaching a settlement with “Hezbollah” over the party’s candidate for the presidency of Lebanon, who is known to be the former minister and deputy, Suleiman Franjieh, although the party has not yet announced that.
In a speech he gave yesterday, described as escalatory, Basil attacked the party without naming it, and said: “They want to implement reforms, but at the same time they want to bring in a corrupt president, a corrupt prime minister and a more corrupt central bank governor and protect them.” He rejected his threat of chaos or sanctions, and stressed: “The president of the republic we choose with our conviction, and no one imposes it on us.” to direct this accusation against his opponents.
Bassil’s words came as the head of the parliamentary bloc of “Hezbollah”, MP Muhammad Raad, confirmed that the party has a candidate for the presidency, adding: “We have someone we want to be president of the republic, and we want to propose him to convince others of him.”
And while a leading source in the “current” refused, he spoke to “Asharq Al-Awsat” to confirm that Franjieh was the one being accused of “corruption.” He added: “The words are directed at anyone who can be imposed by chaos, and let each party understand it as he wants,” stressing that Bassil’s statement is “very clear”.
Basil escalates against “Hezbollah” and accuses its presidential candidate of “corruption”