It's either Azour or Franjieh: Geagea says no third solution
Almost one year has passed since former president Michel Aoun's term ended. The divided Parliament failed for 12 times to elect a new president, with neither of the two main blocs -- Hezbollah and its opponents -- having the 86 votes required to elect one in a first round of voting.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea who had refused to take part in a dialogue to agree on a president said there are no other choices but Jihad Azour or Suleiman Franjieh.
"There is no third solution," Geagea said, in remarks published Monday in Annahar newspaper.
French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian who visited Lebanon this month for the third time to help facilitate the emergence of a consensual solution, has tacitly proposed the election of Army chief General Joseph Aoun, according to MPs he met with. He has hinted that both Suleiman Franjieh and Jihad Azour will not be elected and will return to Beirut with two or three names other than Franjieh and Azour, media reports said.
"The five-nation group on Lebanon -- Egypt, KSA, France, Qatar and the U.S. --are leaning toward a third-man solution, as both Lebanese camps failed to elect a president in all past electoral sessions," Geagea said." But the Axis of Defiance is clinging to Franjieh and has refused a third candidate," he added.
The LF and the Kataeb party have refused to take part in talks to agree on a head of state before proceeding with a vote, preferring to rely on the democratic process.
After his meeting with Le Drian last week, Geagea mentioned a new development in the presidential file, referring to a third candidate who might break the impasse. He later told Annaher that as long as Hezbollah is refusing a third candidate, the opposition will try to gather more votes for Azour.
"It's either Azour or Franjieh," he said.
Source: Naharnet
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