Berri awaiting local, int'l talks outcome to call for presidential vote session

Domestic, regional and international talks over the Lebanese file have intensified lately, Amal MP Qassem Hashem said.

The MP added that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is awaiting the outcome of these contacts to act accordingly.

Lebanon has been mired for three years in a spiraling economic crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in recent global history, and has been without a president since Michel Aoun's term expired at the end of October.

Politically rudderless, it has been run by a caretaker government with limited powers since May.

Lawmakers have held 11 rounds of voting to name a successor to Aoun, but no candidate has garnered enough ballots.

But with no single party or parliamentary bloc holding a majority, electing a new president can drag on for months of even years.

Before Hezbollah-backed Aoun was finally elected in 2016, the group had adopted a similar boycotting tactic, contributing to more than two years of presidential vacancy.