Report: March 8 to Hold Rabieh Meet to Support Candidacies of Aoun, Franjieh
The March 8 alliance is expected to hold an expanded meeting soon in order to tackle the latest developments related to the presidential elections, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa on Saturday.
The meeting will likely assert the camp's commitment to the candidacy of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun.
The lawmaker meanwhile reportedly said that he would only cede his nomination to Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh.
Aoun has not yet declared his candidacy, saying that he will only do so if there was consensus over his nomination.
The March 8 meeting will also be an opportunity for the camp to respond to the initiative declared earlier this week by the March 14 alliance over the presidential elections.
The meeting will be held at Rabieh, but a date for it has not been scheduled yet.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May.
Disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a consensual candidate have thwarted the election of a president.
The majority of March 8 parliamentary blocs have boycotted the elections sessions over the dispute.
Aoun has said that he would be willing to run in the polls if there was agreement over him, while Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, a candidate himself, has accused the March 8 alliance of blackmailing the March 14 camp into electing the Free Patriotic Movement chief.
The March 14 alliance on Tuesday kept its support for Geagea but said it was ready to agree on another consensual candidate for the presidential elections.
The camp holds onto the candidacy of Geagea, al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said, but expressed the alliance's “full readiness to discuss with the rest of the factions the name of a person who receives the backing of all the Lebanese and who is committed to the country's principles.”
M.T.
D.A.
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