BEIRUT, Lebanon, October 5 (Lebanonwire) -- General Michel Aoun is the best candidate for a Christian president, former interior and health minister Suleiman Franjieh said after a meeting between the two on Tuesday.

Franjieh, who lost his seat in parliament following the last elections, said that any president should “first and foremost represent people of his own faith, before anyone elses.” “Why should the Christian faith remain undermined? No one better than General (Michel) Aoun represents Christians today,” Franjieh said.

Franjieh said that he and Aoun are fighting a united front on today’s Lebanese scene, adding that his relationship with President Emile Lahoud is “excellent.” He said that no one asked his help to resolve border issues with Syria, “because those who were Syria’s friends when Syria was strong are now its enemies because Syria is weak, and they have instead befriended the west and soon Israel.” It was a clear reference to the majority government currently in power.

Franjieh criticized the state of stupor the country is experiencing waiting for Detlev Mehlis’s report to be issued on October 21st. “The government shouldn’t use the report as an excuse to stop functioning, especially on the security end. The interior minister is talking about ghosts while people are dying, so he needs to assume his responsibilities,” Franjieh told reporters. Franjieh denied any knowledge of what the UN report will say.

On the issue of UN 1559, Franjieh said that Hezbollah is both aware of the international pressures on the ground to implement the security resolution and dealing wisely with it. “

The party is not ready to surrender its weapons yet, and favors dialogue and negotiations about the issue, knowing that committing political suicide is out of the question at this critical time,” Franjieh said.

He said that this is what Hezbollah and Aoun are discussing, “especially when the General has been calling for Hezbollah to lay down its arms within a comprehensive plan that ends the Isareli-Arab conflict, because no one favors keeping the resistance party armed

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