BEIRUT: The election of a new president has been put on the back burner for now as the entire world is preoccupied with fighting terrorism, political sources said Wednesday, heralding a prolonged vacuum in the country’s top Christian post.
The sources spoke as French presidential envoy Jean-Francois Girault Wednesday held a new round of talks for the second consecutive day with rival Lebanese factions on how to end the political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a president for more than eight months.
However, Girault has apparently failed to make any breakthrough in the presidential crisis following consultations with leaders on both sides of the political divide as the March 8 and March 14 parties stood firm on their support for rival candidates.
Sources from both camps agreed that local as well as regional and international factors were blocking the election of a successor to former President Michel Sleiman.
Parliament has since April failed in 18 attempts to elect a president due to a lack of quorum as the feuding parties remain at odds over a consensus candidate. A new election session is set for Feb. 18.
“The Lebanese presidential election is not a priority for the international community. So far, there has been no regional or international decision to allow the presidential vote to take place because the whole world is preoccupied with fighting terrorism,” a senior March 8 source told The Daily Star.
The source also cited local factors for the presidential stalemate. “The local players’ conflicting stances on who should be elected president are prolonging the crisis,” the source said.He was referring to Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, the March 14 coalition-backed candidate for the presidency, in the face of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who is supported by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies.
A March 14 source who attended some of Girault’s meetings said the French envoy was not carrying any new ideas to break the presidential deadlock.
“The presidential election is not imminent because the local and regional conditions are still complicated,” the source told The Daily Star.
Locally, the source said Aoun’s “unyielding stance” that either he is elected or there would be no presidential election was an obstructionist factor.
“In addition to this major local obstacle, the regional circumstances are not conducive for the election of a president,” the source said, clearly referring to strained ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Rival Lebanese leaders have argued that a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement is essential to facilitate the election of a president.
Girault, head of the French Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North Africa Department, met Aoun at the latter’s residence in Rabieh, before holding talks later with former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in the presence of a number of Future bloc lawmakers. He also met with Kataeb Party leader, former President Amine Gemayel.
Girault met MP Walid Jumblatt at a luncheon hosted by the French Ambassador to Lebanon Patrice Paoli at the French Embassy in Beirut.
The French envoy also went to Beirut’s southern suburbs for a meeting with Ammar Musawi, Hezbollah’s international relations officer.
In addition to the situation in Lebanon and the region, Girault and Musawi discussed the presidential election issue and the efforts made by the French official in this respect either during his trips to some regional countries or in his talks with Lebanese officials and political leaders in Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Girault, Gemayel said he presented an initiative in an attempt to break the presidential deadlock calling for the nomination of the four top Maronite leaders for the presidency. The four leaders are: Gemayel, Aoun, Geagea and Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh.
“The initiative is based on unanimity of the [Lebanese] leaders on the need to elect a strong and capable president,” Gemayel said. “The initiative calls for the nomination of the [four] Maronite leaders for the presidency and for supporting one of them, without closing the door to other candidates in respect of the democratic game.”
Girault, who arrived here Monday night as part of a French initiative aimed at breaking the presidential deadlock, met Tuesday with Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri. This is Girault’s second visit to Lebanon in less than two months as part of a regional tour.
Meanwhile, Berri said the ongoing dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement had won internal and external support.
“There is an internal and external consensus on supporting this [dialogue] approach,” Berri was quoted as saying by MPs during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence.