Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil reportedly threatened senior Hezbollah official Wafic Safa to permanently withdraw from the Mar Mikhael agreement and sever all contact with the pro-Iranian group if they supported extending the mandate of Army Commander-in-Chief General Joseph Aoun.
The Lebanese Forces had presented a bill on October 31 aimed at postponing the retirement of the army’s commander-in-chief, scheduled for January 10 of next year.
A security official within the pro-Iranian group revealed that Hezbollah has indeed received Bassil’s message and decided to wait before revealing its final decision.
Their decision was communicated last Wednesday to the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
At a dinner with Mikati on the eve of the Council of Ministers on Thursday, November 16, the “two Khalils,” namely MP Ali Hassan Khalil, political assistant to Nabih Berri, and Hussein Khalil, political assistant to Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, asked him not to address the extension of General Aoun’s mandate in the Council of Ministers, “as Hezbollah still needs to make a few contacts.”
Despite the deterioration in their relationship since their views on the presidential issue diverged, Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement are striving to avoid a divorce. The reason being: they need each other primarily for opportunistic reasons.
The pro-Iranian militia still needs the Christian cover provided by the Free Patriotic Movement, whose presence in Parliament would diminish significantly if it were abandoned by its sole ally in the local political scene.
Without Hezbollah’s leverage in the elections, the parliamentary representation of the FPM would be, let’s say, modest.
