Report: Jumblat will not endorse Franjieh as KSA opposes his election

MP Wael Abu Faour has affirmed to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat that Saudi Arabia will not support the election of Hezbollah's presidential candidate Suleiman Franjieh, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Friday.

Marada leader Franjieh, a former lawmaker and minister close to Hezbollah and a personal friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has not officially announced his candidacy, but said he was interested in the position.

Hezbollah and Amal back his candidacy, although Hezbollah's Christian ally the Free Patriotic Movement would not endorse him.

Sources told Nidaa al-Watan that Jumblat would also not endorse any president rejected by Saudi Arabia, as he considers that the country needs Saudi support to overcome its crisis.

The Shiite Duo MPs have cast blank votes during all the voting sessions, as they are trying to secure more votes to Franjieh.

Like many of Lebanon's prominent political figures, Franjieh hails from a storied dynasty.

His grandfather and namesake was president when Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war broke out.

In 1978, his father, politician Tony Franjieh, along with his mother and sister, were murdered by rival Christian fighters while he was elsewhere in the country.