Al-Rahi Urges Officials against 'Relying on Foreign Powers' to Elect President

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi condemned on Wednesday the ongoing vacuum in the presidency.

He said: “Officials should cease relying of foreign powers and instead focus on the election of a new head of state.”

He made his remarks during the mass of the Epiphany.

“Politicians should abandon their petty interests” and hold the presidential elections, demanded the patriarch from Bkirki.

Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the polls.

Media reports said in a recent days that the efforts to resolve the vacuum have reached a standstill in wake of the flaring tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran after the former executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr over the weekend on “terrorism” charges.