Kataeb: Dialogue Must Prevent Lebanon Collapse, Revive State Institutions
The Kataeb Party announced Monday that the consecutive national dialogue sessions that will kick off Tuesday must seek to protect Lebanon from “political, economic and security collapse.”
The dialogue parties must also seek to “restore regularity at state institutions,” the party's political bureau said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, adding that “in order for dialogue to succeed, it must abide by the Constitution.”
“The Constitution stipulates that the election of a president has the priority over any other act,” Kataeb noted.
The party also called on the country's top leaders to take part in the dialogue sessions in person “if they have the intention to resolve the presidential crisis.”
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties, including Kataeb, as well as Hizbullah.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
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