The Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, asserted that he reached an agreement with the ambassadors of the countries comprising the quintet responsible for the Lebanese presidential election dossier on the necessity to “Lebanonize” the upcoming presidential deadline.
In an interview with the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, Berri emphasized that the Group of Five (United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar) is “only a group supporting the deputies to facilitate the election of a president of the Republic.” He added that this commission “has no candidate and does not veto any of the candidates.”
Furthermore, Berri indicated that the ambassadors of the quintet member countries, who visited Ain el-Tineh on January 30, did not raise the option of a third candidate for the presidential election, in addition to the Shiite tandem candidate, Sleiman Frangieh, and the opposition candidate, Jihad Azour. In this context, the legislative leader did not propose a specific name either.
Additionally, he reported that there were no objections to his proposal to call on parliamentary blocs for a dialogue to reach a consensus, paving the way for the immediate convening of a parliamentary session for successive sessions to elect a president.
The discussion also touched upon the agreements leading to the extension of the mandate of Army Commander Joseph Aoun and the heads of security services, Imad Othman and Elias Baissari. In this regard, he deemed it necessary to base consensus on this agreement to achieve a resolution regarding the presidential election.
It is worth noting that Berri is accused of obstructing the work of the Group of Five by refusing to call a parliamentary session for successive sessions for the election of a president. He insisted on dialogue as a “precondition to anything else” and reiterated his commitment to the candidacy of Sleiman Frangieh, the leader of the Marada party.
In response to these accusations, the Speaker of Parliament reiterated the “positive” and “promising” nature of his meeting with the ambassadors of the quintet, who confirmed this statement.
In this context, the essence of the new initiative by the Group of Five would be to achieve consensus on new nominations beyond the names already circulating, as none of them have managed to secure a majority of votes during electoral sessions, according to sources from the Al-Joumhouria newspaper. This is what the French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian had previously proposed during his visits to Lebanon, without succeeding in gaining the approval of local political parties.
