Report: Salam Says Seven Other Candidates Eligible for Presidency

Prime Minister Tammam Salam stressed on Friday that Lebanon is in dire need for a “wise” president to fill the over two year vacuum and assured that there are seven candidates eligible for the post other than the names of the four nominees circulated in media outlets, An Nahar daily reported.

Without naming the candidates that he sees eligible to be head of state, Salam said in an interview to the daily that the “political life in Lebanon will not be regulated unless a president is elected.”

On rumors circulating that the Free Patriotic Movement would escalate measures in October and head for a confrontation if a president was not elected in September, Salam expressed pessimism and said: “the date is approaching and there is no light on the horizon.

“The circumstances are not ripe for a confrontation. Who will face whom? There is no possibility for confrontations because everyone is in trouble,” the Premier told the daily.

“What is possible to do is to resign from the government which does not offer anything, on the contrary, it harms the institution and drives for further collapse.”

“They can not threaten me with this. I have settled my opinion and hesitated before the national responsibility,” he added, pointing to previous warnings that he would resign from the cabinet shall political factions fail from agreeing on controversial files that have been palayzing the country and its institutions.

Salam has warned previously that he would step down from his post amid a political crisis and the obstruction of the cabinet's work.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014.

Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.