Qaouq: Lebanon Paying Price of Anti-Aoun Veto, Daraya Liberation Ended Saudi Dreams

Senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq charged Sunday that “the Lebanese are paying hefty prices as a result of the Saudi interference that is putting a veto on MP Michel Aoun's presidential nomination.”

“The solution to the crisis lies in addressing its core reason, which is the Saudi veto on the nomination of the presidential candidate who is the strongest at the national and popular levels,” Qaouq, who is the deputy head of Hizbullah's executive council, said.

Turning to Syria, the Hizbullah official said that the Syrian army's recapture of the Damascus suburb of Daraya under a deal that followed a four-year siege has “ended the Saudi regime's dream of toppling the regime in Syria” while “highlighting the victories of the Syrian army and the defeats of the takfiri gangs on the battlefields.”

“This achievement is strategic, pivotal and historic and it will have repercussions on the course of the confrontations with the takfiri gangs and an outcome that will shape Syria's future,” Qaouq added.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and the MPs of Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.