Al-Rahi Says Whoever Accepts 'Package Deal' Has No Dignity

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday blasted calls for a so-called “package deal” that precedes the election of a president, noting that any candidate who accepts it has no “dignity.”

“How can any presidential candidate who has dignity accept a prior package deal?” al-Rahi asked during Sunday's sermon.

He pointed out that such a deal would “strip the president of his constitutional jurisdiction,” noting that “abiding by the Constitution eliminates the need for any package deal.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has recently proposed a package deal involving agreements on the electoral law and a national unity government.

“If we don't agree on this package deal, especially on the electoral law, we would be crucifying any elected president,” the speaker said on Monday, ruling out the election of a president before such an agreement.

Recent media reports have said that Berri is willing to accept “half a package deal” involving “an agreement on the electoral law, the finance minister post, creating an oil ministry and retaking the energy ministry portfolio.”

Ex-PM Saad Hariri's return to Lebanon last week has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock.

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

Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties.

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.