Hezbollah supports Michel Aoun's presidency bid

Rasa - Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah, has reiterated that the movement backs a bid for presidency by Michel Aoun.

News ID: 3672

Date: 13 December 2015 - 08:58

RNA - “We gave him (Aoun) our word and he has the priority,” Nasrallah told Sleiman Frangieh, a Christian politician who reportedly runs for president, according to the al-Safir newspaper.

Lebanese media on Saturday disclosed details of the December 10 meeting between Nasrallah and Frangieh, where the Hezbollah secretary general made the comment.

Aoun is the leader of the Patriotic Movement.

Other sources said Frangieh sought during the meeting to assure Nasrallah that there has been no secret deal between him and the former prime minister, Sa’ad Hariri, as suggested by some media reports last week.

The Al-Akhbar newspaper said on Saturday that Frangieh had during the meeting with Nasrallah endorsed Aoun’s presidency bid.

“I vehemently back Aoun's presidential bid, but how long are we going to remain at this standstill... what is our backup plan?” said Frangieh during the meeting.

Reports emerged last week showing that the 50-year-old Frangieh had met on December 3 with French President Francois Hollande and Hariri, who currently resides in Paris, to reach a deal on Lebanon’s 18-month political deadlock to elect a president. Hariri had earlier proposed Frangieh as a potential candidate with political observers raising the possibility that Hariri could return to Lebanon as the prime minister under a deal with Frangieh.

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