Al-Rahi Says Not Only Christians Impeding Presidential Election
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayad stressed on Friday that the Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi informed a French diplomat, who is following up the presidential deadlock, that the crisis is not only linked to the Christians.
Ghayad said that al-Rahi stressed during a recent meeting with Jean-François Girault, Director of the Department of the Middle East and North Africa at the French Foreign Ministry, that “the head of state is not for the Maronites and Christians alone.”
Lebanon has been without a president since May when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of his successor.
Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps have thwarted the elections.
“The presidential deadlock is a national crisis,” Ghayad quoted al-Rahi as telling Girault in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper.
The patriarch pointed out that “in a democratic country (such as Lebanon) no one should be excluded.”
Ghayad voiced al-Rahi's distress over the ongoing vacuum at the Baabda Palace, noting that the patriarch is exerting diplomatic efforts in order to pave way for the election of a new president.
Al-Rahi and Girault met last week in the Italian capital Rome. They discussed means to end the presidential crisis, “the needed efforts that must be exerted in Lebanon and the role that must be played by the friendly countries, topped by the Holy See and France,” according to a statement issued by the Maronite Patriarchate's press office.
The statement said the meeting was also attended by Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Bishop Paul Gallagher and French Ambassador to the Holy See Bruno Joubert.
Al-Rahi returned to Beirut on Thursday.
Earlier this month, Girault returned to Beirut to explore means to end the protracting presidential vacuum.
The official, who was tasked by French President Francois Hollande, also held talks in Riyadh, Tehran, Washington and the Vatican over the presidential crisis in Lebanon.
He also met with al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia.
H.K.
G.K.
20 February 2015, 10:06
41
Dear Batrak,
There is one madman in Lebanon destroying the Christians.
20 February 2015, 11:20
01
The one impeding the election of a president is mr berri who invented the two third quorum for electing one with a simple majority suffice after the first ballot, but although the main culprit he's not alone. Every member of Parliament, m8 and m14, present during that first vote and who unquestionably accepted berri's unconstitutional stipulation is guilty as well.
20 February 2015, 15:48
00
Yes, quite true. Not only is it not only the Christians impeding the election, but not the Christians at all.
The Christian political leadership in Lebanon has hired itself out to foreign patrons. The FPM is the Christian agent of Iran in Lebanon and the LF is the Christian agent of Saudi Arabia in Lebanon. Let us look reality in the face. You are the agent to the party who pays your bills, expenses and salary.
The negotiation is between Saudi Arabia and Iran with regard to the Lebanese President. Iran wants one that will commit the Lebanese Army to an alliance of LF/Hezbollah/IRG/Assad Regime forces in the Syria War. Saudi Arabia wants a Lebanese President that will rein in Hezbollah and get it out of the Syria War. The sides are very polarized and so there is no decision.
20 February 2015, 15:50
00
Who is to blame, Aoun ow Geagea? No, they are only acting in accord with the regional powers who butter their bread and pay their salaries. It is the regional Sunni-Shia Sectarian conflict and the Principals to that dispute, KSA and Iran who are the vested Stockholders in the Lebanese Political System and while they are at odds, Lebanon is deadlocked.
20 February 2015, 15:53
00
Berri is a bit player with Iran and Syria who enables all sides by refusing to insist on quorums in the Chamber of which he presides.
Jumblatt is also a bit player for KSA in that he has put up the phony candidacy of Henri Helou as the spoiler to insure that neither side wins a clear majority even if both, Geagea and Aoun, decided to go to Parliament and have an up or down vote. This insures the continuing deadlock.
20 February 2015, 15:56
00
Hariri meeting with Aoun is a joke. Hariri is the KSA agent for Lebanon and Aoun is the agent of the Iranian Agent in Lebanon, Nasrallah. If talks were serious, Hariri would deal with Nasrallah, not Nasrallah's agent. So this is talk for talk's sake.
And finally, the Geagea-Aoun Talks are completely irrelevant. Neither has the ability to agree or commit to anything without cutting off their own salaries and neither has the gumption to sacrifice personal interests for the interests of the nation by both agreeing to the same candidate thus making the Helou gambit irrelevant.
