Hezbollah unyielding in support for Aoun despite calls for consensus presidentfurther complicate the presidential deadlock as it runs contrary to local and regional calls for the election of a consensus candidate to end the 8-month-old vacuum in the country’s top Christian post.
The Hezbollah position came a day after French presidential envoy Jean-Francois Girault ended a two-day visit to Beirut, apparently without making any breakthrough in the presidential crisis in his talks with rival Lebanese leaders as the March 8 and March 14 parties upheld their support for opposing candidates.
Meanwhile, premier Tammam Salam, addressing the Munich Security Conference late Friday, urged the international community to come forth with its promised aid to help Lebanon cope with 1.5 million Syrian refugees along with half a million Palestinian refugees.
“Lebanon is facing a catastrophe [over the refugee crisis],” he said.
He added that the presence of such a high number of Syrian refugees has led to an increase in crimes in Lebanon.
Salam described the Syrian refugee crisis as a “ticking bomb threatening our national security.”
Salam met in Munich with the foreign ministers of Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain and the Saudi deputy foreign minister to discuss the situation in Lebanon and bilateral relations with these countries.
Sources in the March 8 and March 14 camps said that Girault, on his second visit to Lebanon in less than two months, did not carry any new proposals to break the presidential impasse.
Media reports said Girault would visit the Vatican next week for talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, who is currently in Rome, to explore the possibility of inter-Christian moves led by the patriarch in a last-ditch attempt to end the presidential vacuum.
Aoun, the Free Patriotic Movement leader, is supported by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies for the presidency, against the March 14 coalition-backed candidate, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Aoun’s political arch foe.
The presidential deadlock was discussed Friday during a meeting between a Hezbollah delegation and Aoun. The three-member delegation, headed by Mahmoud Qmati, a member of Hezbollah’s political bureau, visited Aoun at his residence in Rabieh, north of Beirut, on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of a memorandum of understanding signed between the FPM and Hezbollah in 2006.
Asked whether Girault had carried any message or initiative to the Lebanese people over the presidential crisis, Qmati told reporters after the meeting with Aoun: “Our position on the presidency issue is clear … We will not abandon Aoun and will not accept another candidate. Our position is clear and there has been nothing new.”
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and other leaders have called for the election of a consensus candidate as the only way to resolve the presidential crisis, a call that effectively rules out both Aoun and Geagea from the presidential race.
Qmati said local and regional developments were favorable for the rival Lebanese parties to reach an agreement to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman.
“The presidential election is always a major issue. We have discussed this issue. We see that local and regional developments and inter-Lebanese dialogues are signals about the possibility of [reaching] an agreement to hold the presidential election, but we cannot set a date for that,” he said. “What matters is that the [local and regional] climate is acceptable. Let’s hope for the best.”
Qmati said he updated Aoun on the results so far of the ongoing Hezbollah-Future dialogue, which is yet to discuss the presidential issue. “This dialogue is serious and will continue. All the participants have displayed calmness, rationality, objectivity and seriousness,” he added.
Referring to the removal of political slogans and party banners belonging to Hezbollah, the Future Movement and the Amal Movement from the streets of Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli Thursday, a step agreed during the Future-Hezbollah dialogue, Qmati said: “What has been implemented in the past few days has defused sectarian tensions and restored the patriotic spirit to the Lebanese people.”
Qmati said he and Aoun praised the “great heroism” achieved by the Army in fighting “takfri terrorism,” a clear reference to the military’s open battle against ISIS and Nusra Front militants who are still holding 25 soldiers and policemen hostage on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
Qmati said Hezbollah and the FPM reiterated their commitment to the memorandum of understanding which, he said, is “an important gateway to an inter-Lebanese dialogue and understanding.”
For his part, Aoun said the Hezbollah-FPM understanding, which eventually turned into a political alliance, had helped preserve the country’s security and stability in the face of threats from Islamist militants.
“All internal incidents could have shaken the security situation. But the [memo of] understanding has helped preserve stability,” he told OTV channel Friday night. “National interest required preserving stability and security … Confidence built between the two parties to the agreement had spared Lebanon security jolts.”
Meanwhile, Rai met in the Vatican with Pope Francis, with whom he discussed the status of Christians in the Middle East as a result of local conflicts, and also the political crisis in Lebanon and the failure to elect a new president, the National News Agency reported.
The pope expressed his solidarity with “the Christians in the Middle East and all those who are suffering and refugees and all those who fall victims to war.”
He urged the Christians to stay in the region in order “to continue their message with Muslim brothers,” the NNA said.
