Days after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian concluded his visit to Lebanon, Future Movement‘s Vice President Mustafa Alloush expressed the party’s disappointment with France.
His comments came in a recent interview with Al-Anbaa newspaper, where he accused the French side of “not helping solve the crisis” and putting “too much pressure” on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.
Pressure such as being asked to meet with the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Gebran Bassil, the political ally of Hezbollah and who is sanctioned by the United States.
Since appointed as PM-designate to form a new government, Hariri had made clear that negotiating with Gebran Bassil was out of the question.
Bassil, who is the son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, has been seeking to become president himself.
Alloush also revealed that the main purpose of Le Drian‘s visit to Lebanon was to inform Lebanese officials that the French initiative had ended, leaving the country’s crises virtually unsalvagable.
Upon concluding his visit, Le Drian expressed that the Lebanese “political actors have not yet assumed their responsibility and have not devoted themselves to working seriously for the sake of the revival of the country.”
However, the government-owned TV station Télé Liban reports that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to invite the Lebanese political officials to Paris for a conference.
Nonetheless, the Future Movement VP’s stern comments alienated Hariri from the French initiative that he has been tasked with upholding for the past 6 months. Hariri‘s problem, Alloush said, is that he “trusted the French too much.”