Aoun renews support for Resistance: Hizbullah was performing the duty of protection

Source: Nowlebanon.com, 18-9-2008
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader General Michel Aoun on Wednesday night reiterated his belief in and support for the Resistance, calling for the integration of the Resistance in Lebanon's national defense strategy. Aoun also said the president had delegated him with working on the defense strategy.
"The Resistance is the army of the poor," Aoun said in an interview on the FPM-run OTV.
"The Resistance must be enlarged to encompass all the Lebanese rather than being monopolized."
Hizbullah was performing the duty of protection, he added, in light of Lebanon's limited potential. However, Aoun ruled that, like the Lebanese army, the Resistance played a defensive, rather than offensive, role.
Aoun said that the many militias on Lebanese territories today should "join the Resistance ... within the limits of the national defense strategy that we will set, as long as they preserve [Lebanon's] borders."
And on the Bsarma shootout between the Lebanese Forces and Marada at dawn on Wednesday, which left two dead and three wounded, Aoun said the event reflected politicians' inability to control Lebanon's security.
General Aoun said that security incidents had one of two explanations: either those forging reconciliations were not serious, or the groups instigating the conflict were tied to foreign forces who did not promote reconciliation.
Any incident like that of the northern Lebanese town may just as well occur in Hadath, Shiyah, or Ain al-Rummaneh as a result of the Lebanese Forces hanging their banners, he added.
Aoun, who recently attacked the role of the media in Lebanon, said that he felt compelled to respond once criticism reached his dignity.
And on the recent reconciliation between Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party, Aoun said, "I outstretch my hand to Jumblatt and the problem is related to a society that was tired of recurrent attacks," he said.
Aoun also said that the Hizbullah-PSP agreement was not an alliance as such, but aimed at avoiding violent and confrontational speeches between both parties. "It is a reconciliation attempt," he clarified.
Yet the General said that he still had nothing in common between them and the majority with whom we formed a national unity cabinet.
Aoun also repeated his call for the creation of a vice president position in Lebanon parallel to the position of deputy prime minister.
The current deputy PM, Aoun's co-party member Issam Abu Jamra, had been "unemployed and displaced," he added, in reference to Aoun's unheeded call for the deputy PM to have an office in the Grand Serail and the right to stand in for the premier in the latter's absence.
Aoun criticized PM Fouad Siniora of not obeying the rules and said his rule since 1993 was "irrational" and only based on personal interests.
Aoun warned that anyone who tried to obstruct the 2009 parliamentary elections would face the arms of security forces, and if this was insufficient, some may resort to self-defense.
Aoun concluded by saying that civil war in Lebanon was not an option.