MP Marwan Hamadeh (Chouf) stated on Friday that “no progress was made on the presidential election, but we are not back to square one,” while commenting to the “Voice of All Lebanon” on the results of the mission of good offices that French President Emmanuel Macron’s envoy for Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, undertook.
Le Drian ends his three-day mission on Friday. He had a one-hour meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri and left Ain el-Tineh at noon without making a statement.
During his radio interview, Hamadeh mentioned a “semi-agreement to drop the two candidates, Sleiman Frangieh (supported by Amal and Hezbollah) and Jihad Azour (supported by the opposition, the FPM and independent MPs) in favor of a third candidate” highlighted during Le Drian’s meetings with Lebanese officials. “This is undoubtedly the commander-in-chief of the army, General Joseph Aoun,” added the MP. But he continued, “Because of certain parties’stances, notably Hezbollah and the FPM, it has become clear that there are still obstacles preventing him from becoming head of state.” He added, “If he (General Aoun) bends to the conditions of Bassil (the head of the FPM) and Hezbollah, there will no longer be any difference between him and Frangieh,” who is part of March 8 and aligns himself with its political line, which is a close extension of the Syrian-Iranian axis.
Without abandoning the Aoun option, Marwan Hamadeh explained that, during his meetings in Lebanon which end today, the French envoy has tried to “clear the way for a third candidate.” He said, “The majority in Parliament is beginning to lean towards dialogue, in search of a consensual candidate.”
Nevertheless, according to Hamadeh, “the picture is still far from clear.” However, he believes that the wait for a possible unblocking will not be long, “because of a series of frightening factors, including the deadly events in the Ain el-Helweh camp, the flow of Syrian migrants to Lebanon, and the affair of the (Hezbollah) airport in the south,” revealed recently by the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Galant.
According to Hamadeh, the expected solution “will not be a Lebanese one, but the result of an international decision and more pressure” towards the election of a president.
