As part of their mission to push forward the presidential election dossier, the ambassadors of the Quintet committee, grouping the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar, visited several Lebanese officials in the past couple of days, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and former President and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Michel Aoun.
The meetings will resume after Eid al-Fitr as some ambassadors will be taking a long vacation in mid-April.
In a televised interview on Wednesday, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa said that the Quintet Committee heard from Berri, during their visits to Ain el-Tineh, a “steady stance” and desire to accomplish the presidential election.
Moussa referred to 3 stages in the Quintet’s initiative. The first, and most important, is communicating with the various blocs and obtaining their “commitment” to the presidential file, the second is holding consultations and deliberations between them, to be followed by the election of a head of state.
He stressed that the Committee does not discuss names, as “it is not its role” to do so.
Moussa emphasized that the Quintet’s objective is to implement the Constitution, noting that some parties “fear to hold dialogue,” ahead of the election.
“No president has been elected in Lebanon at any time without dialogue, and the difference between previous dialogues and the present one is that it is under Berri’s chairmanship,” he said.
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