BEIRUT: The Future Movement of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri hit back at the head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun Sunday over his blistering campaign against previous governments whose leaders the FPM chief has accused of corruption and stealing state funds.

Aoun had alleged that slain statesman and ex-premier Rafik Hariri, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Hariri’s son, Saad Hariri, as well as President Michel Sleiman, failed to act to prevent irregularities.Siniora, head of Hariri’s Future parliamentary bloc, said Aoun’s remarks had insulted all Lebanese and were a reminder of the FPM leader’s rebellion against the Constitution in 1989.

“What General Aoun said recently amounted to an insult to all the Lebanese. With this degenerating speech and this barrage of insults and abusive terms, he targeted people with invalid accusations and attacked the president without any justification at all,” Siniora told supporters at his office in Hilaliyeh, a neighborhood of the southern city of Sidon.

“With this action, he [Aoun] reminded us of the manner he adopted when he revolted against the Constitution and the law when he hunkered down at the Baabda Palace at the time contrary to Lebanese unanimity, unleashing a volley of insults and abusive terms,” said Siniora, a Sidon MP.

He was referring to Aoun’s refusal to quit Baabda Palace in 1989 after he launched a self-proclaimed “liberation war” to evict Syrian troops from Lebanon. Aoun, the then-Army commander and head of a transitional military government, rejected the 1989 Arab-brokered Taif Accord that ended the 1975-90 Civil War. Aoun was forced by a Syrian military operation to leave Baabda Palace and seek shelter at the French Embassy in Beirut.

Siniora lamented the “abusive terms” used by Aoun and his son-in-law, Energy Minister Jibran Bassil against their opponents. “It is a surprising, repugnant and shameful matter for this discourse to take place in Lebanon via television and radio stations. I think that Gen. Aoun has tried to come to the rescue of his son-in-law, the energy minister, who has failed to fulfill his sparkling promises on electricity.”

He added that a decline in Aoun’s popularity was probably the reason behind the FPM leader’s tirade against his opponents. “I think he resorted to this method in an attempt to mobilize [the public] more. But I think that is not in his interest, nor in the interest of Lebanon, and also not for the benefit of the Lebanese.”

Speaking to his supporters at a rally Friday night, Aoun accused the previous governments headed by Hariri and Siniora of corruption and stealing state funds. He said the new republic under Sleiman has failed to take off because of nepotism and rampant corruption.

Referring to the Hariri era, which effectively ruled Lebanon from the 1990s through 2010, Aoun blamed the current political and economic crisis on what he called “the school that ruled since 1993.”

“They brought the country to a bad situation because the ethical criteria in governance are non-existent while the legal criteria are not respected. Nepotism has increased as if we are in a holding company, corruption has become rampant and the [holding] company has won. But the citizens became poor.

“They want to bring us to book for mistakes they have committed in our absence and they want to prevent us from correcting their mistakes. Someone has stolen state funds and they are accusing us of theft,” he added.

Apparently referring to former Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who survived an assassination attempt in 2004, Aoun said: “Some are called living martyrs but they are living thieves. We will not accept false martyrdom. Does anyone know who killed whom and why? He might have killed him because he was a jealous husband. Can he be called a martyr of the country?”

Referring to Sleiman, Aoun said: “When we wanted to change, they raised hell. The authority [Sleiman], who is facing us, does not care for the Constitution and the state treasury and the [security] apparatuses. The Constitution’s articles are not respected. Why then does the president of the republic swear to safeguard the Constitution while Article 83 has never been respected?

“Is this a state or a gang? Where did the gifts go and where are the spending documents? The Higher Relief Committee, which has never met, has spent billions of dollars. The Fund for the Displaced, who got the money of the displaced and where did the money go?” he asked.

Finally, Aoun called on his FPM supporters to prepare to demonstrate in the street in order to show “this state, which is a holding company, that its era has ended.” Last week, Aoun called on his supporters to prepare for street demonstrations to protest the obstruction of Bassil’s plan to improve electricity supplies at a time when Lebanon is suffering from severe power rationing.

There has been no comment from Sleiman on Aoun’s remarks. But political sources close to Baabda Palace said Sleiman’s approach to work quietly, acting like a statesman amounted to “a slap to Gen. Aoun who irreversibly goes very far in his choices.”

Reports received at Aoun’s residence in Rabieh speak of a rising popularity for Sleiman in the Christian heartland of Kesrouan and the Jbeil district according to reliable statistics, the sources said. “This prompted Gen. Aoun to unleash his spears at the presidency, which led the public to rally around it,” the sources added.

Responding to Aoun’s remarks on those killed in bombings in past years, the Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said: “Our martyrs in general, our alive martyrs in particular, and our national leaders who might fall martyr are the pride of our country and our history.”

Batroun March 14 MP Butros Harb said Aoun’s campaign against Sleiman would make him responsible for “undermining the powers of the Christian president, which would reflect negatively on the Christian presence in Lebanon.”

“One thing that we must not keep silent on is Gen. Aoun’s insulting of the Lebanese martyrs who fell in defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty, its democratic system and basic freedoms and the right of its people to self-determination,” Harb told his supporters in Batroun. – With additional reporting by Antoine Ghattas Saab