FPM deputy Ibrahim Kanaan assures that the relationship between “Lebanese Forces (LF) and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) can be restored at any time”.
More than two years have passed on the Meerab agreement between the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, and questioning this historic agreement has become tangible since the standoff between the FL and the FPM on the distribution of ministerial portfolios in the future government has hardened.
For Ibrahim Kanaan, one of the main architects of this agreement, this punctual political crisis can not call into question a strategic vision that has laid the foundation for an “inter-Christian irreversible” reconciliation.
In an interview with L’Orient-Le Jour, Kanaan said that the current political conflict “can not call into question the whole philosophy behind this agreement.” According to him, “the ongoing political conflict is punctual, and can not affect the reconciliation itself that emanates from a long-term strategic vision. On this point, the return is no longer possible and any challenge to this inter-Christian reconciliation is a “red line” referring to the declaration of intent announced in June 2015, by Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea that laid to the foundation for the Meerab agreement.
After several statements made by the head of the FPM, Gebran Bassil, who had announced for the first time that this agreement “was no longer appropriate”, came the announcement by the President of the republic Michel Aoun, according to anonymous sources, that the agreement is now “broken”.
Furthermore, and in an article published Tuesday in the daily al-Joumhouriya, the president also according to sources from Baabda, said that this agreement “did not engage in anyway the Prime Minister designate,” Saad Hariri, “who did not take part in it.”
Mr Hariri is indeed not bound by this agreement, and such statement comes within the scope of Gebran Bassil’s statements. However, it is not what deputy Ibrahim Kanaan thinks; the latter assured that the respective statements of MP Bassil and President Aoun “should not be taken literally.”
Kanaan assured during an interview Sunday on LBC television that the situation reached by both parties is not irreversible, on the contrary the lawmaker pointed out that the Christian-Christian reconciliation was achieved ‘to stay” and “to last”.
Tackling the formation of the government Change and Reform secretary, MP Ibrahim Kanaan said that “all the political counterparts should be represented in the new government in accordance with their sizes and based on the results reflected in the recent parliamentary elections.”
“The obstacles standing in the way of forming the new cabinet will be dispelled because of the national interest that requires the representation of all according to their sizes and diversity,” Kanaan concluded.
