Gemayel Urges 'Consensual President': We Won't Elect Our Rival

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel stressed Thursday that Lebanon's next president must be “consensual” and not a member of one of the rival political camps.

“We need a consensual president who would neutralize Lebanon from the conflicts in the region and common sense says that the president must play a centrist role,” said Gemayel in an interview with LBCI television.

“We will not elect our rival,” he emphasized, warning that a partisan president would lead to the country's “destruction” amid the Sunni-Shiite conflict in the region.

Asked about ex-PM Saad Hariri's nomination of MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency, Gemayel noted that the Marada Movement chief “still has a chance to move to the middle.”

Franjieh “must believe in neutralizing Lebanon from the regional conflict and he must not represent a regional axis or have extraordinary ties with it” in order to win Kataeb's support, Gemayel pointed out.

Turning to the dispute over cabinet sessions, the Kataeb chief underlined that “there is no justification to boycott cabinet sessions or to fail to call it to session,” referring to Hizbullah, the Free Patriotic Movement and Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

As for the controversial release on bail of ex-minister Michel Samaha, Gemayel said “all emergency courts are rejected in a country that claims to respect democracy.”

“Emergency courts must not exist, especially the Military Court,” he added.

The ex-minister was arrested in August 2012 and charged with attempting to carry out "terrorist acts" over allegations that he and Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk transported explosives and planned attacks and assassinations of political and religious figures in Lebanon.

Samaha was sentenced in May 2015 to four-and-half years in prison, but in June Lebanon's Cassation Court nullified the verdict and ordered a retrial.

Samaha, an ex-adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, admitted during his trial that he had transported the explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon. He however argued he should be acquitted because he was a victim of entrapment by a Lebanese security services informer.

Y.R.