Report: Berri Sees Election of President as Solution to Crisis

Speaker Nabih Berri is keen on the election of a new head of state “in order to end the crisis in Lebanon,” reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah on Sunday.

Parliamentary sources told the daily that this “entail the attendance of lawmakers at the elections.”

A new president will reactivate state institutions “as the prolongation of the vacuum will lead Lebanon towards the unknown.”

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

Disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a candidate have thwarted the polls.

Hizbullah announced earlier this year that it will boycott electoral sessions unless it receives guarantees that its candidate, Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun, will be elected.