Jumblat Urges Agreement on Consensual President, Rejects Foreign Intervention
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat reiterated calls on Saturday for the election of a consensual head of state, holding onto the candidacy of Aley lawmaker Henri Helou.
“We should elect a consensual president,” Jumblat said in comments to Sky News Arabia, refusing to withdraw the nomination of Helou.
He urged political arch-foes to swiftly elect a new head of state, saying: “We will not wait for a foreign intervention to resolve the presidential deadlock.
Jumblat recently said he was ready to pull the candidacy of Helou if the other candidates decided to do so in an attempt to resolve the country's presidential impasse.
Lebanon's top Christian post was left vacant on May 25 when President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended amid a failure by the rival March 8 and 14 alliances to find a successor over their dispute on a compromise candidate.
Jumblat has backed the candidacy of Aley MP Helou, saying Lebanon needs a centrist president.
Other candidates include Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, who has received the backing of the March 14 camp, and his rival Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun.
But Aoun has not officially nominated himself, claiming there should be consensus on him first. His Change and Reform bloc and other MPs from the March 8 alliance have been boycotting parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a president, causing a lack of quorum.
Concerning the rising threats by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Jumblat said that “the Islamic State aims at destroying the whole region and not only Lebanon.”
“The region and Lebanon are facing an existential threat.”
Clashes broke out on August 2 between the army and Islamist gunmen in the northeastern border town of Arsal in light of the arrest of a top al-Nusra Front member.
Several soldiers were wounded and killed in the fighting that ended in a ceasefire on August 7.
The gunmen withdrew from the town, but abducted with them a number of soldiers and security forces members.
H.K.
D.A.
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