The President of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, announced that “at a time when Gaza is being bombed day and night and the Palestinian people are suffering the worst hardships, at a time when Hezbollah resorts to maneuvers at the southern borders which could lead to dire consequences at any moment, at a time when the Lebanese citizen is enduring severe hardships due to dire living conditions and catastrophic financial situations, and at a time when the Lebanese people fear losing the last pillar of stability in Lebanon because of the military's involvement in political disputes driven by self-serving interests, we see MP Gibran Bassil going to extreme lengths, crossing all red lines, disregarding all established conventions, and surpassing all constitutional and traditional boundaries, not for the reasons mentioned above, but to get rid of General Joseph Aoun from leading the army for purely opportunistic and personal considerations.”
Geagea added in a statement: “According to available information, he is tirelessly working day and night to appoint a new army commander, respecting all the names proposed for this position, while disregarding everything he previously stated regarding not accepting ministerial decrees that have been issued over the past year as they constitute a diminishment of the president's powers. He now asserts that any appointments in the absence of a president also diminish the powers of the presidency, insistently claiming that 24 ministers must sign every decree in light of the presidential vacancy, alongside ensuring that the Christian majority has a significant voice in any Christian appointments, and so on.”
He viewed that “what MP Bassil is doing in this context is a disgrace to the country, the people, the presidency, the army leadership, and the Christians. This disgrace adds to his behavior that makes him a disgrace to Lebanese politics par excellence.” He concluded: “With this direction led by Bassil for personal calculations and opportunistic purposes, the longstanding fiction of claims to Christian rights collaps, undermining one of the privileges of the presidency, which, according to customary expectations following the Taif Agreement, everyone agreed should give the president a substantial role in appointing the army commander. Trying to appoint a new commander in the absence of a president is a huge blow to the presidential position. How many crimes are committed in the name of Christian rights?”
In response to Geagea, the media and communication committee of the Free Patriotic Movement issued the following statement: “After committing once again a blatant and proven crime against the constitution and principles by proposing a law to extend the army commander’s term, Samir Geagea is engaging in a blatant media operation to cover it by directing a fictitious and fabricated accusation to the President of the Free Patriotic Movement, resembling pre-judgments about intentions, while the head of the movement has not performed any actions nor announced what he agrees or disagrees with.”
The committee added in the statement: “Time and again, it is clear that Samir Geagea has no concern except for (political spite) and doing precisely the opposite of what Gibran Bassil is doing, even if he completely disregards all his positions and principles, with the slight difference that he has never understood what the head of the movement is doing, and the upcoming days will again reveal who is right and wrong, and who is principled and who is working for hire by foreign powers with money and security. Truly, the saying fits Samir Geagea: If you have no shame, do as you wish.”
