Salam Says Paris Committed to Resolving Presidential Crisis

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said that he received French assurances that Paris is continuing to exert efforts to end Lebanon’s presidential deadlock.

He told As Safir daily on Wednesday that he held around 14 meetings with Arab and Western officials in Germany last week “to prove Lebanon's presence on the international scene and shed light on the problems that it is suffering from.”

The meetings also aimed at “urging states to help Lebanon confront its difficult conditions and to contribute to the speedy election of a president.”

Salam met with the officials on the sidelines of the 51st Munich Security Conference.

He said that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius stressed to him that “there are ongoing efforts (to resolve) the presidential crisis, but there is nothing final yet.”

French President Francois Hollande has tasked Jean-François Girault, the director of the Department of the Middle East and North Africa at the French Foreign Ministry, to find a solution to the deadlock.

Girault held talks in Rome on Monday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on the outcome of his latest Mideast tour.

Lebanon has been without a president since May when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

Girault was in Beirut last week.

He has also recently held talks with officials in Riyadh, Tehran, Washington and the Vatican over the presidential crisis in Lebanon. Among them was al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

His last visited to Lebanon was in December.

Salam was asked by As Safir about his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Munich.

He described the talks as “friendly” but said Lavrov stressed to him that Moscow does not interfere in Lebanon's local affairs and that its rival leaders should agree on a successor to Suleiman.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed similar remarks, said Salam.

G.K.

H.K.