Report: Contrary to France, KSA thinks election should precede dialogue
A day after French special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian left Lebanon, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia prioritizes the election of a president to holding a dialogue.
Le Drian, on his second mission to Lebanon, proposed to all those taking part in the process of electing a president to invite them to a meeting in Lebanon in September to achieve a consensus on the challenges and on the priority projects the future president will have to carry out, and consequently the qualities necessary for tackling them.
"The goal of the meeting is to create a climate of trust and enable Parliament to meet subsequently amid conditions favourable to the holding of an open ballot, in order to solve the crisis quickly," the French Foreign Ministry said.
On Friday, Nidaa al-Watan reported that "Saudi Arabia considers the election of a president a priority and that dialogue should follow."
The daily also mentioned an undeclared Qatari drive to resolve the Lebanese presidential crisis, in parallel to the French efforts.
It said the Qatari efforts had started since the Doha meeting earlier this month.
On July 17, representatives of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States, France and Qatar had gathered in Doha to discuss Lebanon, urging parliament to choose a president and politicians to "take immediate steps to break the impasse".
Source: Naharnet
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