Aoun Hits Back at Geagea: Not for Him to Judge al-Rahi Remarks
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday snapped back at Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea who has criticized the stances of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on the Syrian crisis.
“I’m not surprised by the campaign against the patriarch, but even at the peak of our dispute with the Maronite patriarchate, we did not launch such remarks against this spiritual post,” Aoun said after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabiyeh.
“Personal accusations against the patriarch are rejected and unacceptable and we stand by His Eminence,” Aoun added.
Geagea on Monday slammed al-Rahi’s stances on Syria, saying his remarks “put all the Christians in the region in danger.”
“I can’t hide the fact that his statements had infuriated me, as they support the regime and contradict with our entire history and I cannot be proud of this rhetoric,” Geagea said in an interview on MTV.
But Aoun stressed that “it is not for Geagea to judge the value of the patriarch’s remarks.”
“Amid the toughest circumstances, we acknowledged the (former) patriarch’s spiritual leadership and did not use such words against him,” the FPM leader noted.
Addressing the extra-budgetary spending row, Aoun underlined that “there won’t be a settlement over the issue of financial auditing, but rather a foiling of such a scenario.”
“We have refused to surrender to the status quo and we produced a solution according to the constitutional standards,” he said.
Asked about the army’s busting of an extremist Islamist cell planning bombings against its barracks, Aoun said: “I don’t know if the army is largely infiltrated and we hope they will issue a statement whenever they discover anything new.”
Turning to the Syrian crisis, Aoun said that “the unrest in Syria is almost over because the military frontiers, such as Homs, do not exist anymore.”
“Of course the elections will take place and new forces will take part and I hope stability will be restored in Syria because that’s a good thing for Lebanon,” he added.
“What is the alternative if (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad is ousted? What is the platform of the (Muslim) Brotherhood? Haven’t they read that democracy contradicts with the (Islamic) sharia law, according to the Salafists?” Aoun went on to say.
Source: Naharnet
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