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The leader of the Independence Movement MP Michel Moawad has presented Jean-Yves Le Drian, the personal envoy of French President Emmanuel Macron, with a “roadmap” for a political solution in Lebanon.
The document calls for “respecting the Constitution and democratic mechanisms by holding successive parliamentary sessions until the election of a new President of the Republic.”
In a communique issued after his meeting with the French diplomat, Moawad stated that his roadmap had been drawn up “based on the data available from the presidential election, which led the opposition to select a centrist candidate” on whom several blocs have converged.
During the meeting, Moawad commended France’s attachment to Lebanon. He praised “the evolution of the French approach, which is based on the need to elect a president as soon as possible in order to preserve stability and begin institutional recovery, but which also respects Lebanese parliamentary, political, and popular will that all reject the logic of diktat and obstruction.”
Moawad stressed that the only way to a solution and stability is through “the return of the various parties to the fold of the State and through respect for its sovereignty, Constitution, laws, and institutions, failing which Lebanon will inevitably turn into an arena of endless conflicts that will destroy what remains of the country’s capacities.”
“The presidential election should be the starting point for reclaiming the state, not an attempt to perpetuate a project of political and sectarian hegemony that will exacerbate polarization among the Lebanese,” Moawad added. “Otherwise, the result will be further institutional dissolution, tension, impoverishment, humiliation, control over deposits, and usurpation of rights.”
He also declared during the meeting that “the Moumanaa’s (Hezbollah-Amal) calls for dialogue are only intended to buy the axis more time for it to impose its candidate and disrupt the effects of the convergence of blocs representing different communities and affiliations around the candidacy of Jihad Azour.”
The MP for Zgharta recalled that Azour is “an independent candidate determined to successfully reconstruct the State and implement efficient reforms.”
On the other hand, Moawad said he was open “to any serious dialogue” that should be ushered in by the withdrawal of Sleiman Frangieh’s candidacy in order to elect, as soon as possible, “a president who reassures everyone and whose task is to gradually recover sovereignty and carry out the structural reforms needed to save Lebanon.”
Moawad met the French envoy in the presence of the French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo and then took part in a wider meeting with his colleagues from the Renewal bloc, Fouad Makhzoumi and Ashraf Rifi, in the absence of MP Adib Abdel Massih who is abroad.
