With flowers I will greet you, In politics I will beat you

Source: AFP/Daily Star, 30-05-2008
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Fouad Saniora paid a number of customary visits on Thursday, one day ahead of the mandatory parliamentary consultations that will precede the formation of Lebanon's new cabinet. Saniora met former premiers Omar Karami, Salim Hoss, Najib Mikati, Rasheed Solh, Amine Hafez and Michel Aoun.
After a 45-minute meeting Aoun, who is also the leader of the opposition Free Patriotic Movement, Saniora told reporters that the talks were positive. Aoun became Lebanon's only Christian prime minister in 1988 after he was asked by former President Amine Gemayel to head an interim government as a result of the Parliament's failure to meet and elect a new president at the end of Gemayel's term.
Before the constitutional amendments that were introduced by the Taif Accord in 1989, Lebanon's president had the privilege of handing over power to an interim cabinet if faced with vacuum at the end of his term. After Taif, the existing cabinet assumes presidential powers in the event of a vacuum.
On his way out, Aoun gave Saniora a flower from his garden in a welcoming gesture, despite the political feud between the two.