An unexpected meeting between Speaker Nabih Berri and the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, on Tuesday was a clear sign that the FPM has taken a decision to improve its relations with some political parties.
The rapprochement between the two officials came after Bassil was seen to have distanced himself from PM-designate Saad Hariri following disagreements on shares in the new government.
President Michel Aoun, who is the founder of the FPM, has insisted on keeping open channels with all political parties. But his son-in-law Bassil is risking to turn his political understanding with Hariri obsolete.
A single meeting between Bassil and Berri is not enough to bury the hatchet, after FPM and Amal Movement supporters were involved in street clashes prior to the parliamentary elections last May.
High-ranking FPM sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Wednesday that “politics in Lebanon … is not stagnant or permanent.”
The sources said that any rapprochement between Berri, who heads Amal, and Bassil’s FPM does not mean that the caretaker Foreign Minister has been distancing himself from Hariri.
They said that Hariri and Bassil have failed to hold high-stake talks recently over the lack of any new development in the cabinet formation process.
Meanwhile, FPM’s relations with the Lebanese Forces remained tense following mounting disputes over several issues, including the shares of Christian parties in the new cabinet.
However, the FPM’s relationship with “Hezbollah” remains stable, although it witnessed some turmoil when the FPM decided to run in the parliamentary elections on lists competing with the Shiite party in several districts.
The only “stable factor” in FPM’s ties with other Lebanese parties is its continuous dispute with the Progressive Socialist Party of Druze leader Walid Jumblat.
PSP spokesperson Rami Rayes told Asharq Al-Awsat that disputes with the FPM have emerged because the party’s ministers are not showing any transparency in dealing with several issues, mainly electricity.
Rayes also accused the FPM of failing to fight corruption in the country.
