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Envoys urge swift election as Hariri, Geagea meet function

 

Top international envoys called Tuesday for the swift election of a new president, urging the Lebanese to choose a head of state without foreign interference, as former prime minister Saad Hariri and March 14 candidate Samir Geagea urged for a quick resolution to the presidency crisis.The renewed calls came as Speaker Nabih Berri told visitors that he hoped to hold a first dialogue session between Hariri’s Future Movement and Hezbollah before the end of the year.“There should be no question that the Lebanese can and should elect a president, away from foreign agendas or interference,” U.S. Ambassador David Hale said after meeting Prime Minister Tammam Salam. “The choice of a president should be for the Lebanese alone, but should be made urgently. I believe that once such a choice is made, the international community will support the outcome.” “To wait is to invite instability and the further erosion of the institution of the presidency,” Hale said, adding that there was no cause for delay. “To proceed with electing a president will serve the interests of Lebanon and the Lebanese people. “ U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson also urged Lebanese leaders to come together and find a “consensus candidate” for the presidency, after meeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai.“I hope that it will possible to find a formula to find a head of state that represents Lebanon,” he said. “This is of course a Lebanese matter. It is not for us or the outside to find a formula. It is up to the Lebanese to find a solution.” “But I think that it will be very helpful not only for the Lebanese society but also for Lebanon’s position in the world if this matter is resolved,” Eliasson added.Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Geagea and Hariri met at the latter’s residence in Saudi Arabia, where they agreed on the necessity of continuing on with dialogue in an effort to end the ongoing political crisis in the country and to expedite the presidential election.According to a statement released by Hariri’s news office, the two leaders stressed the need to ease political tensions and preserve stability and security in the country.Geagea also met Saudi intelligence chief Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud.Earlier in the day, Geagea called on the Lebanese to maintain hope in their country. “So many of the Lebanese people are desperate and think that there is no escape from the ongoing crisis,” Geagea told Lebanese expatriates in Saudi Arabia, as he stressed that “no one has the right to lose hope in our country.”Alluding to Free Patriotic Movement head Michel Aoun, Geagea said that “no one can claim they are Christian and work in the interests of Christians when at the same time they are disrupting the presidency.”With Geagea representing the March 14 alliance and Aoun the March 8 coalition, the election has been at a standstill since the term of President Michel Sleiman ended nearly seven months ago. With neither candidate thought to be able to garner a majority in a vote, Aoun and his allies in Hezbollah have boycotted Parliament’s electoral sessions, calling them pointless in the absence of a consensus candidate.Geagea slammed Lebanon for making way for regional powers to interfere in its presidential election.According to the LF chief, the only way to curb regional influence would be through achieving an agreement between Christian parties first, and then the Lebanese in general, on a consensus presidential candidate.Berri’s visitors quoted him as saying that he hoped to hold the first dialogue session between the Future Movement and Hezbollah between Christmas and New Year’s, but did not reveal the agenda of the meeting.Berri told his visitors that his agenda for the meeting includes the presidential and parliamentary elections, and that this was similar to the agendas of the two parties.Aoun’s bloc blamed the political class, however, for the deadlock.“Those who undermine the Taif [Accord] and proper representation are the same ones who have been undermining for 24 years the election of a strong president of the republic,” said MP Ibrahim Kanaan at a news conference after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc.Meanwhile, the Future bloc called for the deployment of the Lebanese Army and an international peacekeeping force along the porous border with Syria to protect the country from militant attacks.“The deployment of the Lebanese Army on the eastern and northern borders, with the help of an international emergency force has become necessary,” the bloc said in a statement released after their weekly meeting, blaming Hezbollah for the militant threat fraying Lebanon’s borders.