BEIRUT - Smiling for the sea of cameras, General Michel Aoun stood shoulder to shoulder with his longtime arch-nemesis Samir Geagea and pledged to thaw an almost 30-year rift between the two sides.
As the leaders of the two largest Christian political parties in Lebanon - the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Lebanese Forces (LF) respectively - the two men have been deeply divided and hold the balance of power in Lebanon.
Aoun’s FPM is allied to the Hezbollah-led 8 March camp, while Geagea belongs to the Sunni dominated 14 March group that is supported by the powerful and Saudi-backed Hariri family. Both men have been desperately vying to become president, with a deal seemingly impossible until now.
At Tuesday’s press conference, however, two veterans of the bloody and brutal civil war, announced a mutual declaration of intent. The statement, sketching out areas of agreement between the LF and FPM, has been hailed as historic by the press far more accustomed to writing about the age-old spat that emerged at the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.