Aoun threatens with coup d’état

Michel Aoun is in the news again, this time by threatening that the Hezbollah led opposition will take over all the government institutions if the new president is not a consensus candidate…all in the best interest of Lebanon of course since Hezbollah has solemnly promised that they would never use their weapons against Lebanon.

Well, so much for that promise, then again, not too many Lebanese would expect Hezbollah to stay quiet if the March 14 parties would elect a new president by simply majority. Still, it is yet another notch on the anxiety level for most people living here. What’s almost ironic is the quote of Aoun saying: "We have given up a lot of our demands. What is left for us is to pack our bags and leave the country," Aoun said.”

It will remind people of the other time Aoun left Lebanon at the end of the civil war. At the time, he was forced to leave after waging a war against Syria, this time he is suggesting he is forced to leave for supporting Syria too much. How things can change! Also interesting to note is that this interview came right after a meeting between Aoun and Hariri in Paris, which supposedly resulted in a breakthrough. So much for that breakthrough as well.

In the mean time, the progress made in the presidential election process is quite shady, to say the least. On the one hand, we have Condoleezza Rice saying that March 14 should not settle for a consensus candidate, while on the other hand Sarkozy is trying to convince Bush to accept such a candidate. Also, the Maronite patriarch seems to prefer a consensus candidate.

Regardless of the hopeless situation Lebanon finds itself in, there is one person still very upbeat about positive results: Nabih Berri said yesterday that he was optimistic about how the situation was progressing. Still, that didn’t stop him from hinting at a possible delay of the upcoming Parliamentary session, scheduled for coming Monday. Reason is that yet another negotiator will sink his teeth in the Lebanese political mess. This time, a senior Arab League official will give it his best.

For the mere mortals in this country, all that is left to do is to wait and see what rabbit the magician will pull out of his hat. Don’t expect it anytime soon, though. The current political maneuvering is the equivalent of the game children play: whoever blinks first loses.