Suleiman is ‘Fed Up’ over Campaign against him on $5.9 Billion Spending

President Michel Suleiman is reportedly fed up with the pressure exerted on him to sign the controversial $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending bill and the campaign launched against him by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun.

Baabda palace visitors told An Nahar daily on Wednesday that Suleiman was “fed up” after Aoun reiterated his accusations that the president was causing a paralysis in state institutions by refusing to sign the bill.

“Things have reached the red line,” the visitors also told As Safir newspaper.

Aoun accused the president on Tuesday of forcing the government to violate the constitution by spending illegally in an attempt to appease the March 14 opposition in its demands to find a comprehensive solution to the extra-budgetary spending made since 2005, the last time Lebanon had an official state budget.

Baabda palace sources told As Safir that Suleiman refutes allegations that he is seeking to settle the dispute on the $11 billion spent by the governments of ex-Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

“Had the president wanted to cover up the $11 billion spending as some claim, he wouldn’t have proposed a solution to the $5.9 billion,” they said.

The visitors however quoted Suleiman as saying that the March 8 forces “agree outside the cabinet on whatever they want and they go there to impose” their opinion.

The president reportedly stressed that he rejects to cover any “political dispute” between the March 8 majority and the opposition through a constitutional violation.

Suleiman is insisting that if he signs the $5.9 billion bill, he would make a constitutional violation because it includes irregularities that should be settled by the parliament through the adoption of the reservations expressed by the legislature’s spending and budget committee.