Mashnouq Says Presidential Vacuum Shouldn't Paralyze State

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashbouq considered on Friday that presidential vacuum should not obstruct state institutions, urging rival parties to confront terrorism and fortify the national unity.

“Are we supposed to paralyze the state if we failed to elect a new head of state?” Mashnouq wondered in remarks published in As Safir newspaper.

He stressed that the political arch-foes should hold onto the cabinet and the parliament in order to be productive and not to resolve political disputes.

Lebanon has been plunged into a leadership vacuum after Michel Suleiman's presidential term ended on May 25 with rival political blocs still divided over a new leader.

Over the past two months the parliament convened five times to try to elect a successor to Suleiman but failed during the last four sessions due to a lack of quorum.

A row among the parties rose in the cabinet over a mechanism regulating the government’s work during the ongoing presidential vacuum thus ending the last three sessions without any consensus.

The parliament also failed to meet to vote on any draft-law over lack of quorum as most Christians party reject to attend sessions before the election of a new president.

The cabinet assumes the executive tasks of the president as stated by the constitution until a new head of state is elected.

Concerning the developments in Iraq, Mashnouq said that the “region is unsteady and we have no right to drown in our disputes.”

“We should confront terrorism and strengthen our political and national unity,” Mashnouq noted.

Jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have swept up a huge swathe of predominantly Sunni Arab territory in northern and north-central Iraq, including the second city Mosul.

Forces from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have meanwhile taken control of Kirkuk, an ethnically divided northern city they have sought to rule for decades.

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