Berri on Presidency: Let No One Use My Stance as an Excuse
Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday called on all parties not to use his stance as an “excuse” to justify their own stances regarding the stalled presidential vote.
“Let no one use my stance as an excuse, seeing as my stance involves paving the way without getting into the issue of the favorite candidate,” MPs quoted Berri as saying during his weekly meeting with lawmakers.
“When the country is in danger, we must not resort to ambiguities and mazes and we must embark on addressing our crises without any clamor or uproar,” Berri added.
He also reiterated that “political and national understandings would pave the way for electing a president, not the exchange of blame.”
Some parties have accused al-Mustaqbal Movement of taking advantage of the fact that Berri has not endorsed MP Michel Aoun for the presidency to justify its own rejection of the presidential bid of the Free Patriotic Movement founder.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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 as well as Hizbullah.
Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties.
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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