The position expressed by the US Ambassador to Beirut, Dorothy Shea, during a “walk-in” on the sidelines of her visit to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, is almost al-Faisal. “Why are we against Suleiman Franjieh, and what if he is elected?” In theory, Shea, and her administration in Washington behind her, read well in the Lebanese file, and through them, politicians read carefully in the American book.
However, in any case, the election of the head of the “Marada” movement requires former minister Suleiman Franjieh to take a serious step forward, avoiding it at least for the time being, depending on the political circumstances surrounding the allies.
Contacts with “Hezbollah” and others, whether through it directly or through the mediation of those around it, and on more than one level, it is understood from them that they are finishing work on arranging the date for announcing the nomination, and that it is considered as a necessary step, which constitutes a prelude to delving into the next plan, which is to transform this nomination into numbers, and finally paring them into the box.
Whoever accompanies Franjieh and his movement makes sure that the head of the “Marada” is very careful and he is seized by a “moment of contemplation”, and that there is no time left. He asked “Hezbollah” to expedite the mechanism for resolving its affairs with regard to it. The party returned to him that matters were settled regarding his adoption of a presidential candidate, and that the matter only needed to announce an official candidacy on his part (Franjieh). But the phrase was linked to another: “When conditions are ripe.” Franjieh asked for the discussion on the timing without specifying it, but he quickly understood that the significance of the party’s waiting stems from his desire to “tighten” the nomination and secure a comprehensive briefing on it. So he returned to the waiting area, but it seemed that he had limited it with a timing not long ago.
When delving into the affairs of Bnachii, it becomes clear without equivocation that Franjieh is wracked with pain from how long he waited for the party to settle the situation of the allies. He has become sufficiently and absolutely convinced that matters between the current and the party are “not stable”, and its results will positively affect him, and therefore, today is the best time to resolve the nomination announcement.
Hezbollah also has its own accounts. Despite the state of “epilepsy” in the relationship with the “mainstream”, the shock and astonishment of the transformation of rules, from lovers, to enemies. However, he does not intend to “break completely” with Basil. Things that Franjieh must understand and comprehend, and in conclusion, “Hezbollah”, and if it is now required to end its relationship with the “current”, but it does not want to lose it, at least as a friend.
So Franjieh is enough to wait and there must be a choice. So, the party seems closer to its announcement, or almost. After that, it becomes permissible to start calculating the numbers from the date of announcing the candidacy within a path in which it is not expected that he will last as a candidate for more than 3 months, so either he becomes president or not.
On the way to that, the party refuses to enter Franjieh without completing the duties of the presidency in terms of numbers and the like. On the other hand, others find that the party must quickly decide its options without waiting for the external atmosphere that manipulates the Lebanese atmosphere, through deliberate leaks in most cases. What should be carefully considered is that the chairman of the council and the partner at the same time were affected by the Saudi position, which seemed to reject Franjieh’s option to some extent, as the envoy of Ain al-Tineh, Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, finally understood to the Saudi embassy. Was the survey of the American position through the ambassador an attempt by Berri to reassure the president?
