The head of the "Free Patriotic Movement", Deputy Gebran Bassil, and former minister and head of the "Mouvement Aoun" party, Suleiman Franjieh, held a recent meeting at a mutual friend's place. This followed an earlier meeting between Bassil and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. The meeting between Franjieh and Bassil is the first since they were gathered by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah at a Ramadan Iftar last year, prior to the parliamentary elections, as well as the presidential election that commenced with the end of President Michel Aoun's term at the end of November. The parliament has held ten sessions so far, all failing to elect a president. Franjieh is considered one of the prominent candidates for the presidency, supported by the "Shiite duo", while Bassil opposes him, not missing any political avenues to send a message to his ally Hezbollah that he is not isolated, and has the ability to engage with his rivals without discounting the potential for reopening channels with his ally, should he take the initiative to contact. This is particularly true since Hezbollah is not willing to initiate contact on the grounds that those who caused the issue should take responsibility for correcting the situation to restore the relationship to how it was before his meeting with Nasrallah, which was uncomfortable following his suggestion to jointly seek a presidential candidate who is not Franjieh.
Franjieh's reception of Bassil is said to have not caused - according to a prominent political source - any concern among the leadership of the "Progressive Socialist Party", who well understand that the limits ultimately remain confined to breaking the ice and ending the existing rift between them, and will not evolve towards a new chapter of cooperation. In this context, the same source revealed that Bassil decided to broaden his communication channels with unconditional openness to his rivals, a shift that came immediately following the breakdown of communication between him and Hezbollah. His previous political rhetoric, which peaked with attacks against them, only shifted after his relationship with the party faced a setback he could only navigate through an initiative to contact his ally, to close the chapter of the disagreement caused by his targeting of Franjieh, although it is unlikely to return to its previous state pre his meeting with Nasrallah.
It was noted that Bassil did not hesitate to fulfill a mutual friend's request to join Mikati for lunch, and later to meet with Franjieh. He stated that the initiative to arrange the atmosphere for these meetings came from a mutual friend, a businessman who has previously sponsored such meetings. "Asharq Al-Awsat" learned that Bassil met Mikati on December 15th, the eve of the consultative ministerial meeting hosted at the Grand Serail the following day, which included several ministers aligned with former President Aoun and his political team, some of whom boycotted the cabinet session held on the 5th of this month.
According to information, the Bassil-Mikati meeting ended with no results, leaving the existing issue between them regarding the call for the cabinet to convene for urgent matters unresolved, as both remained firm in their positions. The political source confirms that the deadlock for both Mikati and Bassil regarding a friendly atmosphere to overcome the catastrophic political crisis persists alongside the vacancy in the presidency, which reflected on Bassil's meeting with Franjieh, limiting discourse to exchanging views on several issues, except for discussing their respective presidential options, amid Bassil's local and external campaign against the candidacy of his fierce ally for the presidency.
The presidential plate was not present at the lunch table, according to the same source, at Franjieh and Bassil's second meeting which followed their initial encounter hosted by Nasrallah at a Ramadan Iftar, which ended with a "bias" towards giving priority to Franjieh's candidacy, causing discomfort for Bassil.
It is rumored that Franjieh - as the political source states - suggested delaying the presidential election file from the agenda of the meeting with Bassil; he is not inclined to "dip" outside the topic, after having assigned Nasrallah, in coordination with the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, to manage the presidential file, which explains his reluctance to engage in disputes with Bassil over his campaigns targeting him during his visits to Qatar and France. Therefore, Bassil is seeking to engage with the Sunni and Druze communities, as he found no partner in the Christian street, while awaiting political "amnesty" from Nasrallah, even though the party is not likely to initiate contact with him but may respond to his initiative to reach out if it deems he has crossed red lines in their last meeting, which should have prompted him to withhold for a while, instead of revealing his political cards by suggesting searching for another candidate for the presidency who is not Franjieh.
