When president Saad Hariri walked out of his 19th meeting with president Michel Aoun to announce his apology for forming a government, the first reaction of a neutral Lebanese political source was, “ he should have done this since his third meeting with the president, i.e. after two weeks to his designation, where he informed him about his refusal to the line-up he presented to him during their second meeting.”
Hariri knew from the first day, that things were not right between “Beit Al-Wasat” and “Baabda”, the same between “Beit Al-Wasat” and more than one Arab capital, especially Riyadh. But still, he continued with his intransigence and stubbornness, betting on matters to be changed. But his bet was built on illusions not on facts. The presidency of the government for him was a “special need” that he wanted, to get out of his predicaments and dilemmas, but he did not realize that his confusion, whether in politics or otherwise, would not return him to the Saraya.
When he formed his first government in this covenant, Aoun described that government as “not the covenant’s first government.” This description was a slap in Prime Minister Hariri’s face, as how can his government take off while the President of the Republic disavows it, during the covenant’s first weeks? He should have resigned then, as how can he cooperate with a president who does not consider the government as his, or the covenant’s first government?
Once again, he should have apologized after all the time it took him to form a government, after the parliamentary elections in May 2018, as he spent eight months without forming, due to the covenant’s stipulation on the obstructing third and on the ministerial appointment of the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gibran Bassil. The covenant prevailed, and a government was formed through total submission to the covenant, and who is behind it, i.e. Hezbollah.
He resigned again after October the 17th 2019 revolution, uttering his famous words, that his right place is with the revolutionists, but those words were nothing but a desperate attempt to contain the street’s resentment against him.
He left power and was supposed to learn lessons, but instead it seemed that he did not learn anything, so he tried “to infiltrate again into the assignment after burning, or contributed in burning the cards of potential candidates for assignment: Bahij Tabbara, Muhammad Safadi, Samir al-Khatib, and when he did not succeed in burning Ambassador Mustafa Adeeb’s card, for not causing a problem with President Najib Mikati, the godfather of Ambassador Adeeb, he planted political mines all over his way. Adib discovered the planted “mine map,” so he hurriedly apologized and returned to Germany.
What kind of “obsession” is this with the presidency of the government, to make Prime Minister Hariri stick to it, even if the President of the Republic calls him “a liar and making false statements”? and it is proven by sound and image during General Aoun’s meeting with President Diab on January 10th.
Hariri’s apology was over four years late, as he should have apologized at the beginning of the term and not at the end of it. What does it benefit him to be nominated by 65 deputies, which is the number of deputies who named him to form the government, i.e. only half the number of parliament members plus one, while most of the internal and external forces have deprived him any credibility?