Gemayel warns of 'abyss' after meeting Bou Saab

Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel said Wednesday that he can't head into "the abyss" of six more years of humiliation by electing a president who won't make a change.

"We are open to any solution," Gemayel stressed, after he met with Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab, part of an "exploratory tour" the latter had started to discuss the presidential and political crisis with Lebanese leaders.

"We are not the problem, the problem is the side imposing its decisions on the Lebanese and obstructing any chance of growth," Gemayel said.

Bou Saab had met last week with Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad and met this week with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Tajaddod MPs Michel Mouawad and Fouad Makhzoumi.

"My initiative aims at building bridges and not at electing a specific president," Bou Saab said after meeting Gemayel.

He had considered on Tuesday after meeting al-Rahi that the "real problem" is not the name of the president but the fact that parties are not willing to communicate.