FPM supporters vandalise property of rivals in Lebanon
Observers point to a growing monopoly over the party by Bassil who does not tolerate dissent
after the Minister of Defence, Samir Moqbel, extended the term of Major-General Mohammad Kheir as secretary-general of the Higher Defence Council, over strong FPM objections. Bassil is also livid that Moqbel pledged to extend the term of Lebanese Army commander General Jean Qahwaji, allegedly because such extensions were unlawful.
In voicing his opposition to the government’s work, however, Bassil referred to the National Charter and insisted that Muslims in general and Sunnis in particular were not applying the Charter, ostensibly because the Future Movement refused to preselect Michel Aoun as the head of state.
In recent weeks, Bassil repeatedly affirmed that the FPM represented “95 per cent of the Christians” that, in the words of Minister Alice Shabtini, made the “movement seem more important than it actually is”.
Earlier in the week, Shabtini did not mince her words and played on the terms used by Bassil who said “cursed are those who are not applying the National Charter”; “cursed are those who are not selecting Aoun”; and “cursed are those who try to uproot us from cabinet through holding sessions that violate the National Pact”.
The Minister of the Displaced, whose writ includes reconciliation between the different communities that fought in the 15-year-long civil war, used the same terms when she said: “Even if he is claiming that he represents 95 per cent of the Christians, he doesn’t have the right to speak in the name of the rest of the Christians.”
“The greatest betrayal,” she elaborated, “is the contribution to vandalising the country and I tell Bassil that he is, willingly and unwillingly, dragging the country to division and in the best case to federalism ... cursed is anyone who doesn’t help fill the presidential post.”