Al-Rahi Rejects 'Preconditions' on President, Urges Blocs to Reveal Stances on Nominations
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his rejection of imposing any “preconditions” on any presidential candidate or the president-elect, as he urged the parliamentary blocs to “clearly announce” their stances on the nominations.
“Despite their importance, the topics that were raised at national dialogue or in bilateral meetings cannot become an obligatory gateway for the election of a president and cannot be imposed as preconditions on the candidates or the president-elect, seeing as that would violate the text and the spirit of the Constitution,” al-Rahi cautioned in the Sunday mass sermon.
“The process of raising and addressing these topics in parliament and cabinet must be left to the president, and this president must be wise, shrewd and knowledgeable, and as per the call of the bishops, he must be an 'arbitrator president' not a partisan or puppet president,” the patriarch added.
He also stressed that “after two years and five months of destructive presidential void, the political and parliamentary blocs have a duty to clearly and frankly declare their stances on the candidates whose nominations have become public
Ties between al-Rahi and Speaker Nabih Berri had witnessed tensions in recent days in the wake of the patriarch's announcement last Sunday that any candidate who “has dignity” cannot accept the so-called package deal that has been proposed by the parliament speaker.
But Berri on Wednesday lauded a statement issued by the Council of Maronite Bishops and noted that it “does not contradict” with the national dialogue agreements or the proposed package deal.
Bkirki sources have also noted that “as long as the speaker has announced his approval of the Maronite bishops' call, this means that we are in agreement and that he is not imposing conditions on the president.”
Recent media reports have said that Berri is willing to accept “half a package deal” involving agreements on the electoral law, the oil exploration file and the finance and energy ministries.
Ex-PM Saad Hariri's recent return to Lebanon has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse FPM founder MP Michel Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock.
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.
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.
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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