French special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian started the second day of his third mission in Beirut by meeting in Clemenceau with the former head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Joumblatt, and MP Teymour Joumblatt, in the presence of MP Wael Bou Faour.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Walid Joumblatt expressed “his support” for the French initiative, “which is still ongoing,” and for the initiative of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who called on the leaders of parliamentary blocs to hold a seven-day dialogue in Parliament, followed by open electoral sessions.
He also called on “the parliamentary blocs, and the Head of the Progressive Socialist Party, MP Teymour Joumblatt, to respond favorably to the invitation to dialogue.” He added, in response to a question, “The Lebanese Forces have a different opinion regarding this matter, but we prefer that of Berri and Le Drian, which are based on dialogue.”
The Lebanese Forces and opposition MPs refuse the holding of a multilateral dialogue, which they consider to be against the Constitution. They agreed, however, to hold bilateral meetings with Le Drian.
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Walid Joumblatt further indicated that the meeting did not focus on the names of the candidates, adding that he had not been informed of a dialogue scheduled for September 21.
The French envoy began his third mission to Lebanon on Tuesday, September 12, with the aim of finding a solution to the presidential deadlock.
Raad
Le Drian also met with Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, in Haret Hreik. The meeting focused on the “French initiative seeking to initiate a dialogue among the Lebanese regarding the presidential matter,” according to Hezbollah’s press office.
Le Drian considered that “Speaker Berri’s proposal for dialogue falls within the same context and complements French efforts in this regard.”
Raad emphasized “the importance of dialogue and communication among the Lebanese as the only available way to resolve the current situation regarding the presidential issue.”
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Change MPs
He later on received several Change MPs at the Pine residence. At the end of the meeting, MP Yassine Yassine declared, Le Drian “tried to convince us to participate in the dialogue called for by the Speaker. I told him that such a dialogue is unconstitutional, to which he replied that dialogue is the only solution, otherwise Lebanon would face an existential threat.”
Based on news by MTV Lebanon, Le Drian informed them that the future president would not be among the names proposed by the different factions, neither Frangieh nor Azour. He assured them that the presidential election session will be one and open and that there would be no quorum manipulation in the second round.
According to the same source, Le Drian emphasized that he would work on convincing Sunni MPs of the necessity to attend the dialogue called for by Berri.
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