Efforts to settle disputes between the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement are stalled after all mediators remained convinced that the crisis between the two sides is largely linked to LF leader Samir Geagea and FPM leader Jebran Bassil’s ambitions to become president.
This dispute is hindering efforts to form a new government.
The two parties realize that disputes over ministerial shares is threatening the landmark 2016 Maarab understanding.
The deal ended nearly 30 years of rivalry between Lebanon’s two main Christian parties. The agreement also saw Geagea agree to FPM founder Michel Aoun’s candidacy for the presidency. Aoun was elected president later that year.
Despite their current quarrels, the LF and FPM insist that the Maarab understanding is “sacred and a red line.”
Caretaker Information Minister Melhem Riachi, of the LF, and MP Ibrahim Kanaan, of the FPM, were both tasked with the mission of repairing relations between the two sides.
On Sunday, Kanaan, representing Aoun, is expected to attend an LF event commemorating of the party’s martyrs.
“This participation asserts that the reconciliation between the two parties is sacred,” Kanaan told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday. “Aoun insists on considering the reconciliation as irreversible” and that any disputes between the two sides were not insurmountable.
Meanwhile, LF and FPM supporters had recently resumed their verbal quarrels due to the cabinet formation crisis, which has been narrowed down to the inter-Christian dispute over ministerial shares.
The LF insists on separating its dispute with Bassil from its relationship with Aoun.
Riachi told Asharq Al-Awsat that Bassil, personally, disrupted the reconciliation. “No understanding can be achieved by one party” and excluding the other, he said.
The minister said there would be no serious political talks with the FPM outside the framework of the Maarab understanding. He also denied that the government formation impasse was linked to the identity of the next president.
“Hezbollah” deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said no one should imagine or think that his ministerial size in the next government should reflect his role and position in the battle for the presidency after Aoun’s term ends.
The LF interpreted the statement as a message to Bassil, “Hezbollah’s” ally, while the FPM believed it to be a message to Geagea.
