On September 13, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the transcript of the head of the Change and Reform Bloc General Michel Aoun’s interview on Al-Jazeera television:
Is the crisis today one of political leadership or one of the authority?
… Today, the authority is not sound due to the violation of the constitution and the democratic principles adopted by Lebanon since its establishment and until this day. This is the internal facet of the problem. On the external level, we have dictations to which the majority is succumbing by generating crises, knowing that there is no crisis to begin with. Once an agreement over the government formula was reached, the problems emerged due to the unwillingness of the Arab and foreign countries to see the formation of this government.
The crisis began before the parliamentary elections, back when the majority was saying it wanted a majority government, and became clearer with the statements of the Maronite Patriarch who reiterated his wish to see a government of a majority and a minority. This goes against the Lebanese constitution and democratic life in Lebanon because it enjoys a consensual system and all the populations around the globe enjoy a primary and a secondary identity. We are all Lebanese people, but within this Lebanese identity, there is a sectarian system in which each carries a secondary identity.
Therefore, and as long as we have two identities, we must have consensus...
You are accusing the majority forces of succumbing to foreign dictations aimed at preventing the formation of the government. But the March 14 forces won the elections and want more than anyone else to form this government.
The national unity government is at the core of the Lebanese system. However, they do not want that. They want to impose a government with their own conditions and want the other parties to have little to say about their decisions.
Are you saying that foreign forces are supporting the majority in its formation of a government in which you would have no say?
… All the European countries, America and Israel are supporting the majority to the point where we have started hearing voices which are not against naturalization in Lebanon. Many within the majority do not talk about naturalization, knowing it is the topic of the hour. For his part, Netanyahu opposed Hezbollah’s ascension to the Cabinet and Israel said that if this were to happen, there will be war. These statements affected the votes in the elections and tilted the balance in favor of the current majority against Hezbollah and the opposition...
But Al-Hariri rejected the Israeli interference and said that Hezbollah will partake in the government.
He said he relinquished the two thirds. Where did he get these two thirds? The parliament is currently divided between 45% [for the opposition] and 55% [for the majority] and this percentage does not constitute the two thirds. A fair allocation of the ministerial seats in the thirty-minister government would be seventeen for him and thirteen for us... Before the elections they used to say they did not want a national unity government but a majority one. However, when they found that the issue exceeded their powers, they accepted the formation of a national unity government based on the 15-10-5 formula which we accepted. They thus faced a predicament because they did not wish to proceed with it and placed impossible conditions while waging a fictive war against the appointment of Gebran Bassil as minister...
How can we exit the predicament now?
We must have politicians standing on their own two feet and refusing any connection with certain [foreign] decisions. What did I do to America to be targeted by it? I did not carry out the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York or the Pentagon or the London subway? Why are the Americans always attacking us?…
Speaker Berri is saying that the S-S [Syrian-Saudi Arabia] equation is the one that generates calm or tension in the country.
Some in Lebanon might be affected by one of the two sides, but on my end, I am not affected by the Syrian-Saudi conflict and no one asked me to issue any positions. I have defined certain demands which are less than what I am entitled to have, so let them give them to me.
The non-formation of the government was due to Al-Hariri’s inability to meet your demands?
This inability was a cover up for the non-formation of the government to waste time, because something has not ripened yet. We were the first to make sacrifices and are entitled as a Free Patriotic Movement to be in the government...
Why is the Telecommunications Ministry posing a problem? Presidential candidate John McCain previously said that Hezbollah wanted it to control telecommunications.
This is a false accusation because Gebran Bassil was the only Telecommunications Minister to regulate tapping and we presented a dossier in this regard to the judiciary. The problem is that they no longer have access to our telecommunication due to our presence in power. They can no longer acquire the information they want...
Did the previous Telecommunications ministries give out information?
There were reports presented to the embassies. I received information from security sources saying they provided foreign embassies with information. The Barouk network is not an easy thing to build and there is corruption in the ministry...
The government can only be formed with the participation of Hezbollah, Berri and Aoun. Is that true?
Absolutely.
In the next stage, will you hold on to the same conditions?
Let us not rush things.
Saad al-Hariri is saying you are holding on to the Telecommunications Ministry and Gibran Bassil.
The government could be formed without me but my allies are holding on to Bassil more than I because it is a matter of principle.
The majority generated a non-existent problem before we even started naming the ministers. We were still trying to reach an agreement over the formula when the campaign was launched...
Who does Cairo support in Lebanon?
This was not revealed yet.
Is it someone other than Siniora?
A man said to another: If you know what is in this basket I will give you two apples.
Are you saying that Riyadh is supporting Hariri and Egypt is supporting Siniora?
This is one of the conclusions. In diplomacy, there are hidden cards whether on the Arab or on the international levels. Reality can be hidden and the contradiction was clear on the ground. We have heard such talk from prominent figures and knowledgeable sources.
Al-Hariri will be reappointed to form a government. Will you name another?
We will not name anyone...
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Jaber the Second offered to host a conference to form the government. However, some majority deputies fiercely attacked this proposal. What do you think?
Why would we accept the initiative of an Arab country and reject that of Qatar which in Doha helped us resolve a major crisis? I do not deny the right of any Arab country wishing to help us, especially since it has no ambitions and is not paying money to fake the elections in the country.
So, you do not reject this initiative?
I do not reject any mediation, especially in the absence of ambitions. During the Doha meetings, they did not ask for any positions or power...
How do you perceive the coming stage?
The issue is not in my hands and we will exert all possible efforts to prevent the detonation of the situation and the spread of chaos. We will handle the crisis like we handled the previous one for two consecutive years. As for the formation of the government without us, I have not reached this possibility yet.
Lebanon news - NOW Lebanon -Michel Aoun
13th September 2009
