Lebanon's presidential election: Latest developments
The developments in Syria have pushed Lebanon’s political forces to intensify their efforts to secure the election of a new president in the electoral session that Speaker Nabih Berri has scheduled for January 9, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.
“There is real concern over the future of the developments in Syria and their impact on Lebanon, despite the celebrations of some forces that considered the fall of president Bashar al-Assad’s regime as a liberation of Lebanon,” the daily said.
“Even Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea did not hide in his meetings the presence of concerns as to how things might develop in Syria,” al-Akhbar quoted unnamed sources as saying.
The newspaper also revealed that Lebanese officials have asked U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein to clarify the latest remarks by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s advisor Boulos Massad about the need for the Lebanese to delay the election of a new president until after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“That coincided with reports sent by U.S. Ambassador to Beirut Lisa Johnson to the U.S. State Department, demanding that Boulos stop voicing stances that do not reflect the United States’ official policy,” al-Akhbar said.
“Johnson stressed to her visitors that the U.S. administration supports the election of a president during the January 9 session,” the daily added.
The French, according to al-Akhbar, have meanwhile submitted lists containing names of potential presidential candidates who are not part of the current political class, amid reports of an undeclared meeting between Boulos and French presidency officials.
Boulos received “a list with the names of three candidates that Paris believes do not represent a provocation to the main parties in Lebanon, identified as the banker Samir Assaf, former foreign minister and economic expert Nassif Hitti and former interior minister Ziad Baroud,” the newspaper said.
“The meetings are still ongoing to discuss the possibility of agreeing on a consensual candidate and the latest meeting between Geagea and the MPs Alain Aoun, Elias Bou Saab, Ibrahim Kanaan and Simon Abi Ramia is part of these efforts,” the daily added.
Sources informed on the meeting meanwhile told the newspaper that “Geagea did not mention a confrontational president but rather expressed readiness to reach a consensual president with the other camp.”
Geagea, however, emphasized that any agreement must not exclude the opposition camp and that it would be unacceptable for the other parties to agree on a candidate without consulting with the opposition forces, the sources said, explaining that the LF leader would reject an agreement between the Shiite Duo, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party and Sunni MPs.
“The MPs advised Geagea to communicate with Berri to improve the electoral session’s success chances and he assured that contacts with him are supposed to resume over the coming days,” the sources said.
Informed sources meanwhile told al-Akhbar that Geagea is strongly opposed to the nomination of Army chief General Joseph Aoun, a claim later denied by the LF's media department as totally baseless.
Ad-Diyar newspaper for its part quoted informed sources as saying that ties have warmed again between Berri and Geagea and also between Geagea and Druze leader Walid Jumblat after a period of tensions.
“According to leaks, contacts between the three parties might lead to the election of a president in the Jan. 9 session,” the daily said.
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