Al-Rahi sends list of 15 presidential candidates to Shiite Duo, Jumblat

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has sent a list with the names of 15 presidential candidates to Hezbollah, Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, a media report said on Wednesday.

The list included the 11 names already contained in the list put together by Archbishop Antoine Bou Najem following his meetings with the Christian blocs -- Joseph Aoun, Suleiman Franjieh, Michel Mouawad, Ibrahim Kanaan, Jihad Azour, Ziad Baroud, Roger Dib, Salah Honein, George Khoury, Faris Elias al-Khazen and Neemat Frem. According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the names of Ziad Hayek and Philippe Ziade and two other candidates have been added to the list.

Ziade “has been proposed as a settlement candidate in a side, indirect dialogue between the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement,” the daily said.

“Al-Rahi called on the ‘partners in the country’ to either add new names to the list or send a small list containing three names, prompting Berri and Hezbollah to answer that they support Franjieh’s nomination and do not intend to engage in discussing open-ended name lists,” al-Akhbar added.

The patriarch had discussed the presidential file with French Ambassador Anne Grillo on Tuesday. According to the newspaper, Grillo told al-Rahi that her country is continuing its efforts to reach a presidential settlement and that Franjieh’s nomination is still on the table