By Xinhua,
Beirut : Lebanese Christian opposition leader Gen. Michel Aoun has threatened to pull out of the Doha talks and return to Beirut “because the tide has turned in favor of the majority,” local Naharnet news website reported on Monday.
Aoun, who is the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, made the threat because he accused the ruling March 14 coalition of seeking “to swallow half the Christian seats in Beirut to guarantee its victory in the next parliamentary elections.”
However, Aoun backed off his decision to leave Qatar after diplomats, taking part in the inter-Lebanese dialogue in Doha, advised him not to leave “in this manner” since his pullout would threaten the collapse of the dialogue process, according to media reports.
Instead, the opposition leader made a television interview on his own Orange TV in which he accused the March 14 movement of continuing to seek “dominance,” said the reports.
Lebanon’s rival factions are now holding talks in Doha, the capital of Qatar, in a bid to pull their country back from the brink of civil war after clashes between pro-government and opposition supporters last week left 72 people dead and over 200 wounded.
Lebanon is facing the most complicated political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Lebanese political rival groups were unable to achieve a breakthrough to elect a new president for the country since Nov. 24 last year when ex-president Emile Lahoud ended his term.