Report: Rahi Has Not Proposed Extension of Suleiman's Term
Politicians have denied that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has proposed a one-year extension of President Michel Suleiman's tenure, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Wednesday.
The politicians, who were not named, told the newspaper that al-Rahi has not made such a suggestion during talks with al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri in Paris last week.
The denial came in response to a report in al-Akhbar daily on Tuesday that the cardinal proposed the extension after his suggestion on three possible candidates did not receive the required support.
Al-Akhbar said that al-Rahi had proposed the names of former Ministers Ziad Baroud, Deminaos Qattar and Roger Deeb as possible consensus candidates for the presidency.
The officials told al-Anbaa that the March 8 alliance's boycott of parliamentary sessions is a reflection of lack of consensus locally, regionally and at the international level on the election of a new president.
President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends on May 25.
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