BEIRUT: MP Sleiman Frangieh vowed Friday to stay in the presidential race, denying reports that he will bow out in favor of MP Michel Aoun.

He also stressed that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s initiative last year supporting the Marada Movement leader’s nomination for the presidency still stood and remains valid.

Frangieh’s remarks came a day after Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, a key figure in Hariri’s Future Movement, said in a TV interview that there was “a big, serious and invisible international decision to elect a president before the end of the year.” Machnouk also said that the Future Movement so far was committed to supporting Frangieh’s candidacy for the presidency.

“The initiative launched by [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri still exists. There is a lot of media leaks that I was asked to withdraw [from the presidential race] and that I had informed the French Foreign Minister that I will withdraw. I would like to affirm that this talk is baseless, doesn’t exist and was not proposed,” Frangieh told reporters after a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri at the latter’s residence in Ain al-Tineh.

He reiterated that he would not stand against any national deal on backing Aoun or any other candidate for the presidency. “But as long as there is one MP from outside my bloc who supports me, I will stay on.”

He added that his allies, namely Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, would not ask him to withdraw from the presidential race. “I am staying in the battle until the last minute as long as there are [MPs] who support me.”

He urged lawmakers to head to Parliament to vote for a new president, saying that he would congratulate the winner. “If I win, this is democracy. Democracy has the final say,” he said.The presidential vacuum, now in its third year, has paralyzed Parliament legislation and threatened to cripple the government’s work.

The presidential race is pitting Frangieh, who is supported by Berri, Hariri, MP Walid Jumblatt and some independent lawmakers, against Aoun who is backed by Hezbollah, some of its March 8 allies and the Lebanese Forces.

Rival leaders are scheduled to meet in three successive sessions of national dialogue in Ain al-Tineh on Aug. 2, 3 and 4 in an attempt to reach a package deal over key issues, including the election of a president, a new vote law and the shape of a new government.

Frangieh also said he was in total agreement with Berri over the presidency issue. “Viewpoints were identical with his [Berri’s]. We have one strategy and one vision over the presidential election. We agree on matters 100 percent,” he said.

LF chief Samir Geagea said Jumblatt was ready to vote for Aoun after the Christian majority had agreed on the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement for the presidency. He also said he was in contact with Hariri over supporting Aoun’s candidacy.

“MP Walid Jumblatt is aware of the true situation and he prefers any president to the vacuum,” Geagea said during a meeting at his residence in Maarab with a delegation from the town of Tannourine. “Since the Christian majority has agreed on Gen. Michel Aoun [for the presidency], he [Jumblatt] is ready to vote for him. Contacts are ongoing with [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri in this respect.” Geagea added that Hezbollah was not serious in its support for Aoun’s candidacy.

However, Future MP Ahmad Fatftat denied reports that his party had begun mulling the possibility of endorsing Aoun’s candidacy for the presidency.

“[Former] premier Saad Hariri has always confirmed that his candidate is the Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh,” Fatfat said in an interview with Akhbar al-Yom news agency.

Like the March 14 coalition, Fatfat accused Iran of blocking the presidential vote until it gets something in return in Syria or Iraq.

“Iran is holding the presidency card and will not give it up until it gets in return a regional price in Syria or Iraq and an internal price through political gains for Hezbollah under the slogan of ‘a constituent congress’ or something similar,” he said.

Hezbollah has been accused by its March 14 opponents of seeking to push for a constituent congress aimed at replacing the country’s sectarian-based political system with a new one.

Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb disputed Machnouk’s optimism about the election of a president before the end of the year.

“There are no signs indicating any imminent breakthrough in the presidential file,” Harb told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.

Harb, who has voiced his support for Frangieh’s candidacy, said he was not convinced of electing Aoun as president. “We must not reward someone who has obstructed the Constitution for his own interests,” he said.

Harb, who has been participating in national dialogue meetings, said the political atmosphere ahead of the three-day sessions next month was not positive, especially with regard to a new electoral law. “The joint committees are revolving in the same vicious circle,” he said.

The joint parliamentary committees Wednesday failed again to reach an agreement on a new vote law, as rivals remained sharply split over what voting system should be used for next year’s parliamentary polls.

MP Ali Fayyad from Hezbollah’s bloc summed up the outcome of the committees’ deliberations as “zero.” The committees are discussing two hybrid draft laws based on proportional representation and a winner-take-all system.