WikiLeaks: Aoun Slammed ‘Mercenaries,’ Said Syrian Regime Collapse ‘Inevitable’

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has described several parties in Lebanon as corrupt “mercenaries” who are after power and have no credibility.

Aoun said in a WikiLeaks cable from Paris dated May 4, 2005 that his only ambition behind his return to Lebanon from a 15-year banishment to France was to bring back democracy to the country.

However, according to the cable published in al-Joumhouria daily on Tuesday, the FPM chief unveiled that his efforts to reach agreement with Druze leader Walid Jumblat, the Hariri family and traditional Christian leaderships had been ignored. They are “mercenaries,” he said.

About Hizbullah, Aoun said the Shiite party enjoys “some type of popular support” and so far is not corrupt. For such reasons, the MP said he could cooperate with the group to encourage it into handing over its weapons to the Lebanese army and becoming a political party.

The cable said that Aoun bragged of being the only opposition leader directly supporting U.N. Security Council resolution 1559, adding that the other officials announced their strong support only after ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

In another cable dated April 29, 2005, Aoun appeased fears that he would be used by the Syrians or those backing the Assad regime.

Al-Joumhouria also published a third cable dated March 31, 2005. In it, Aoun was quoted as saying that the collapse of the Syrian regime is “inevitable.”

He said security institutions in Lebanon should be restructured because they are a copycat of Syrian apparatuses.