There was no agreement and the Shiite community was not defeated
Representative Ali Hassan Khalil asserted, “In the meeting with the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, when he was still a candidate, we did not discuss in any way the issue of the next prime minister. Rather, we discussed major issues related to state administration and governance, and we voted for him even though he was not our first candidate.”
Khalil explained, in an interview with MTV, Thursday evening, that “our contacts with the Saudi side did not address the issue of prime ministership, and we are open to a positive dialogue with President Nawaf Salam, and all the skeptical talk is incorrect. We simply had a candidate and he lost.”
He stressed that “the Shiite community is not defeated, does not want to exclude anyone, and refuses to be excluded by anyone. We are keen to meet with all people on the basis of respecting the Taif Agreement with all its aspects.”
He explained, “There was no agreement and it was vetoed, and all that happened was that the general atmosphere declared by the blocs with which we communicated was towards naming Najib Mikati, and we agreed with a group of blocs to go with this option, and what happened was that they changed their position.”
