Report: Hollande to Meet Top Officials on Beirut Trip without Having Solution to Presidential Impasse
French President Francois Hollande is scheduled to pay a visit to Lebanon at the end of next week where he will hold talks with various senior officials, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Saturday.
He is set to meet with Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, and the representatives of various political blocs.
Sources said that he will likely hold talks with head of the French contingent in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
Arabic sources in Paris doubted that the French president will propose a solution to the presidential deadlock.
The visit will however present a suitable occasion to push Lebanese officials to speed up the election of a head of state in order to breathe life into constitutional institutions, said al-Liwaa.
U.N. Special Coordinator of Lebanon Sigrid Kaag had meanwhile kicked off on Friday a trip to Paris, which she will crown on Wednesday with talks with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, three days before Hollande's arrival in Beirut, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.
The Elysee presidential palace announced that Hollande will embark on a tour to Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan from April 16 to 19.
Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.
Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps have thwarted the polls.
Hizbullah announced earlier this year that it will boycott electoral sessions until it receives guarantees that its candidate, Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun, is elected.
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