International Pressure to Elect President on Time, France Rejects Extension

Western countries in addition to Russia and China are expected to exert more pressure on Lebanese parties to elect a new president on time and avoid a vacuum, Western diplomatic sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Friday that the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China are among the countries pushing for parliament's election of the president starting March 25.

President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends in May but the Constitution says the 128-member parliament should start holding sessions on March 25 to elect a head of state.

Al-Hayat also quoted a French official as saying that Paris has never backed the extension of Suleiman's mandate.

Last month, As Safir newspaper quoted well-informed diplomatic sources as saying that Suleiman prefers to renew his mandate rather than extend it.

The sources quoted Suleiman as telling his French counterpart Francois Hollande in September that he rejects the extension of his term, even for a day.

Hollande hinted to his Lebanese counterpart that he should seek an extension, they said.

The French official stressed to al-Hayat that France would neither interfere in the election of the president nor in the cabinet formation process.

The Western diplomatic sources also said that the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council won't have a say in the name of any presidential candidate.

“This is a Lebanese concern,” they said.