Retired General Michel Aoun, the sole declared but hotly disputed candidate with less than 11 weeks to go before presidential elections, sees his candidacy as the only way out for a Lebanon deep in crisis. "Maybe I am the key because I am independent, love Lebanon, and am a free man, with no foreign capital behind me ... I can be the bridge between all sides," he said. "I can't guarantee anybody else. I know my country, our politicians ... I don't want a mistake," Aoun told AFP in an interview at his borrowed villa headquarters in the affluent mountain resort of Rabieh, northeast of Beirut.The Maronite Christian opposition leader said he was opposed to a "weak" consensus candidate coming forward in a bid to break the deadlock, warning that such a scenario could spark further instability and "destroy the country."
All-party talks taking place near Paris this weekend were "an opportunity for all parties to expose their points of view ... and for a possible initiative born of a synthesis," Aoun said. "If we are not optimistic, why go to Paris? We have to give a chance to all initiatives," he said.
Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement won a vast majority of the Christian vote in 2005 legislative elections, after Syria ended its almost three decades of military domination of Lebanon under international pressure following former premier Rafik Hariri's murder.