Qatari envoy secretly meets with politicians over presidential crisis

A Qatari security envoy is meeting with Lebanese MPs and politicians, away from the spotlight, to discuss the election of Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun as a consensual president, media reports said.

The Qatari diplomat is meeting with change and independent MPs and has also met with figures close to the Shiite Duo, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported Monday, adding that Qatar prefers to hold the meetings in secrecy as it does not want its initiative to conflict with the French dialogue initiative.

French special presidential envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian is scheduled to return to Lebanon this month. He had proposed on his last visit to Beirut to invite all those taking part in the process of electing a president to a meeting 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 Qatari envoy will leave Beirut in the coming days and will return at the end of the month after Le Drian's visit ends, Ad-Diyar said.