Geagea Rejects to Meet FPM Delegation for Talks Set to End Parliamentary Deadlock

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea informed the Free Patriotic Movement, which made an initiative to hold talks with various Lebanese blocs to end the political standstill, that his parliamentary bloc will not meet the Change and Reform Delegation.

LF MP Fadi Karam told al-Akhbar newspaper published on Thursday that the decision was taken by Geagea, who finds the initiative “useless.”

“The initiative is useless and harmful... We could meet to discuss the general developments or we meet during a reasonable parliamentary session.”

The FPM has been holding a series of meetings with political powers in Lebanon aimed at ending the country's deadlock.

It had held talks with the al-Mustaqbal bloc, Phalange bloc and Speaker Nabih Berri.

In October, the FPM, which is led by MP Michel Aoun, announced that it will hold talks with various parliamentary blocs to reactivate the work of the parliament and the legislative sessions.

On November 20, a two-day parliamentary session was postponed for the seventh time over lack of quorum amid sharp rift between the March 14 alliance and Berri on its constitutionality.

The session was postponed to December 18.

The controversial legislative session is set to discuss 45 items on its agenda, the same session that has been boycotted for five times since July over differences on whether the parliament can convene amid a resigned government or not.

The previous sessions were boycotted by the March 14 coalition, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Aoun's bloc.

Miqati and the March 14 alliance argue that the parliament can only discuss urgent items amid a resigned cabinet.

The FPM bloc has boycotted previous sessions over the speaker's failure to include the bloc's items on the session's agenda.