Local Editor

Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Thursday said that his relationship with President Michel Aoun was based on national interests and could not be shaken by partisan or personal issues, in comments published in a local daily.

Asked about media reports which stated tensions were present in his relationship with President Michel Aoun, Hariri replied: “My relationship with the president is not subject to questioning and interpretation, and is stronger than to be shaken by articles or analyses ... because it is based on solid constants where the interest of the country supersede the interests of the party or the private.”

The comments came in an interview with al-Mustaqbal, a newspaper affiliated with Hariri’s Future Movement, on the eve of a trip by Hariri to Spain on Thursday in order to meet his Spanish counterpart.

Speaking of the drawn-out process of Cabinet formation, Hariri said that some sides were playing with the powers granted to the president and prime minister, but that the constitution was “crystal clear,” in the powers it gave.

While Lebanon remains rudderless nearly two months after its last Cabinet’s term expired, Hariri said optimism was now prevailing, when just few days ago pessimism reigned.

Hariri said recent consultations between parties had reopened closed lines in several directions, and succeeded in expanding a political and media detente, “which we bet will translate in the process of forming the government.”

Speaking of a recent meeting with Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran Bassil on the sidelines of a parliament session earlier this week, Hariri said the meeting had been good “as usual.”

“Channels of dialogue and communication are open every day with the Free Patriotic Movement, which is normal, because it is my duty as prime minister to communicate with all and with the main powers in Parliament specifically,” he said. Rumors had abounded that there was tension between Hariri and Bassil over the latter’s steep ministerial demands in the next Cabinet.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team