Lebanese imbroglio
By Olivier Guitta
While the deadline for the election of a president is looming fast in Lebanon, the situation remains as murky as possible.
World diplomats are trying to deal with this potentially explosive issue.
The potential role of Christian General Aoun might turn out to be quite important.
For proof, please read on two excerpts (full stories available to subscribers) of two recent stories featured in The Croissant:
1- Lebanese Christian General Aoun, potential next target?
The Beirut antenna of a Western intelligence service recently sent a confidential and secret note to its European headquarters stating that General Aoun is allegedly threatened and that he is sitting at the top of the list of potential targets of political assassinations.
This document bases its analysis on the evolution of Aoun’s policy. In fact, Aoun has been recently accused by its allies of “getting closer to the US again” after he met last week with US ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman.
Indeed some in the US administration still believe that Aoun would be a good president to disarm Hezbollah in accordance to UN resolution 1559.
Aoun also thinks that its allies [mostly Hezbollah and Syria] have exploited him without supporting its candidacy to the presidency.That is exactly why Hezbollah and Syria are concerned about Aoun’s allegiance.
2- General Aoun losing its main financier?
Since he has become an Hezbollah ally, General Aoun does not hold the US close to his heart [The Croissant’s note: this is pretty ungrateful because no country helped more Aoun than the US when his only goal was to kick Syria out of Lebanon.]
In an interview with Le Temps over the summer, the Christian general accused Washington of destabilizing Lebanon.
[President] Bush said he would freeze the assets of those who work against the legitimate Lebanese government. Obviously Aoun felt threatened and said "some of our supporters are getting scared".
According to the brand new revelations of the Kuwaiti newspaper Ar Rai, Wadih Absi is one of Aoun’s main financiers.
Absi is a Lebanese Christian who made a fortune in Kuwait: he arrived there as a worker and is today at the helm of one of the largest construction companies in the region: the First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company (FKTC).
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