Berri says September dialogue 'opportunity not to be missed'

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri considers the September dialogue -- proposed by French envoy Jean Yves Le Drian -- an opportunity "not to be missed."

Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that an agreement could be reached through September's dialogue.

"If we agree, a President will definitely be elected but if we don't reach an agreement, we would plunge into a dark abyss, and Lebanon would have to pay heavy additional prices," Berri said.

Le Drian, on his second mission to Lebanon, proposed to all those taking part in the process of electing a president to invite them to a meeting in Lebanon in September to achieve a consensus on the challenges and on the priority projects the future president will have to carry out, and consequently the qualities necessary for tackling them.

"The goal of the meeting is to create a climate of trust and enable Parliament to meet subsequently amid conditions favourable to the holding of an open ballot, in order to solve the crisis quickly," the French Foreign Ministry said.

Berri blamed those who refused a dialogue he had called for to end the presidential crisis.

"Had we taken the path of dialogue from the beginning, the presidential crisis would have been behind us by now," Berri said.

Mired in a crippling economic crisis since 2019, Lebanon has been governed by a caretaker cabinet for more than a year and without a president for more than nine months.

No group has a clear majority in parliament and lawmakers have failed 12 times to elect a new president, amid bitter divisions between the Shiite Duo MPs who back Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh and the opposition backing former finance minister Jihad Azour.