Report: Vatican Initiative to Secure Election of President in Late September

The Vatican is seeking to find a solution to Lebanon's presidential crisis and it is preparing a “major” initiative to help the country elect a president in late September, a media report said on Sunday.

“A major Vatican initiative is currently in the making and it is being discussed through some contacts and meetings inside and outside Lebanon,” the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper quoted a senior Christian spiritual leader as saying.

There are hopes that this initiative could lead to the election of a president in late September, the daily added.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has recently mentioned the possibility of finding a “compromise candidate” who would not be one of the country's top four Maronite leaders.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.