Kataeb MP Salim el-Sayegh said that he would reject “any constitutional ambush” that would lead to the imposition of the resistance’s candidate Sleiman Frangieh. During an interview on Wednesday morning on the LBC talk show “Nharkom Said,” Sayegh warned, “We’ll play the game of institutions, and if you leave them, we’ll leave with you, and if you return to disrupting the election, disruption is within everyone’s reach, and it’s easy to establish other institutions that resemble us.”
When asked about the Moderation bloc’s initiative in favor of unblocking the presidential election, Sayegh announced that he would make a final decision on the matter once he was certain of the decision taken by the “follow-up committee” of the “Kataeb political bureau” and the “opposition” as a whole.
He nonetheless welcomed the initiative, but said that the Kataeb “will prepare its own, if the Moderation’s initiative does not succeed.” “We are therefore awaiting its results (…) before presenting our draft,” he noted.
Remaining on the subject of the presidency, Sayegh reiterated his party’s opposition to the “invitation to dialogue” extended by the Head of Parliament, Nabih Berri. He argued that the latter could not be both “actor and arbiter,” as this would be a “shortcut and a breach of the Constitution.”
However, Sayegh reiterated the Kataeb’s position, saying that the party “remains open to any other initiative and discussion in the format of bilateral consultations” between MPs, while expressing “caution” about the outcome of such a step. He added that caution would remain the order of the day in the ranks of the Kataeb until further notice, if no tangible results were achieved.
