Aoun Not Ready to Give up Power to March 14 but Doesn't Reject Cabinet Change
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said Saturday that the March 8 alliance is not ready to give up power to the March 14 coalition that is rejecting to sit at the same table with the ruling majority.
“We are not ready to give up power to people who claim they won't sit at a single table with us,” Aoun said in an interview with al-Nour radio station. “We have made many compromises to sit with them at the table.”
“We have documents that prove their involvement in a lot of issues and we are ready to publish them,” he warned.
The cabinet has an equal representation better than the government of Fouad Saniora that had only a single ruling side, the head of the Change and Reform bloc added.
Aoun ruled out the collapse of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government.
“There will be nothing radical today until the (parliamentary) elections,” he told his interviewer. “But even if that happens, it wouldn't be in favor of those calling for change.”
Despite his optimistic view on the fate of the government, Aoun said: “We don't object to cabinet change and we are always with renewal.”
The March 14 opposition called on the resignation of the cabinet following the Oct. 19 assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence chief Wissam al-Hasan.
The coalition's leaders called for the formation of a salvation government to end the tension that erupted in the aftermath of al-Hasan's killing in a car bomb explosion in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district.
They also announced that they would not sit at the national dialogue table with Hizbullah and as long as Miqati's government is in power.
Asked about claims that Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat was preserving the cabinet, Aoun said: “Hizbullah and I are also preserving the government.”
“Had Jumblat not been convinced of the cabinet's policies or not benefiting from them, he wouldn't have stayed in it,” the FPM chief said.
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