Bassil, Geagea Stress Importance of 'Reconciliation'

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Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday marked the third anniversary of the landmark Maarab reconciliation between their two parties.

“In politics, several things change, but the reconciliation was a profound action that we carried out together with the LF and it is higher than all agreements,” Bassil tweeted.

“We salute the souls of all martyrs and tell them that there will be no reversal of the reconciliation but rather a return to our agreement and its spirit,” the FPM chief added.

“Democratic competition is necessary and it should strengthen rather than weaken us,” he went on to say.

Geagea meanwhile posted on Twitter a picture of himself alongside President Michel Aoun, Strong Lebanon bloc secretary MP Ibrahim Kanaan and caretaker Information Minister Melhem Riachi. The picture carried the phrase “A Historic Reconciliation for the Sake of the Future”.

Kanaan for his part tweeted that the FPM-LF reconciliation “has been and will always be a safety net for Christians and their national principles.”

Both parties have sought to distance their historic 'reconciliation' from the political differences that have put an end to a political agreement signed between them in 2016 in Maarab.

The two parties parted ways during the 2018 parliamentary elections and their ministers clashed several times in Cabinet over several files. They have also locked horns over their ministerial seats in the new government, which is yet to be formed, before a settlement was eventually reached over the LF's number of seats.

SourceNaharnet