Aoun: the government is violating our rights in administrative appointments

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized on Tuesday President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s practices, saying that they are violating the Change and Reform bloc ministers’ efforts to exercise the rights they have been granted by the constitution. He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “Suleiman and Miqati are violating our rights in the administrative appointments.” “Suleiman does not have any privileges and he has no right to make any suggestions at cabinet … as he has no popular representation,” he added. The president and prime minister are complicit in working against the FPM and “preventing us from reaching the highest ranks in power”, declared the MP. Last week, Prime Minister Najib Miqati suspended a cabinet session at the Baabda Palace over an ongoing dispute over the issue of administrative appointments. The suspension was prompted when FPM ministers walked out from the session. “We wanted the president to play the role of referee between the rival political camps, but he ended up taking sides in the dispute,” Aoun remarked. “They claim that we do not respect the president. We don’t care if the government remains or if it is overthrown. We will no longer accept mediations to end the crisis,” he stressed. He added that the constitution obligates Miqati to call cabinet to session, revealing that the Change and Reform ministers would attend the session. Addressing European countries’ recalling of ambassadors from Syria, he noted: “They were working against Syrian President Bashar Assad and now he is relieved of them.”