French presidential initiative: Latest developments
French President's Special Envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was expected to arrive in Beirut on a diplomatic visit Tuesday in a bid to break the presidential deadlock in the crisis-hit country.
Le Drian will meet with Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said, adding that Berri will respond to a Quintet's statement after meeting Le Drian.
The ambassadors of Egypt, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United States had said in a joint statement earlier this month that "Lebanon cannot afford to wait another month" without a president, stressing that consultations are needed to end the current political stalemate.
"Those who refuse to participate in (a presidential) dialogue are responsible of the consequences," Berri was quoted as saying.
Al-Akhbar newspaper had reported earlier this week that while in Lebanon Le Drian will also meet with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Quintet's ambassadors.
The daily said that France is considering sending invitations to hold a dialogue conference in Paris that would gather the Lebanese political forces in order to discuss the presidential file.
Berri reportedly refused the Paris dialogue. "Why (would it be held) in Paris and not in Beirut or in an Arab country," Berri was quoted as asking.
Ahead of Berri's meeting with Le Drian, the Speaker will meet Monday with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson before she heads to Washington where she will brief other U.S. ambassadors on the outcome of the presidential discussions, Asharq al-Awsat said.
Sources meanwhile told ad-Diyar that French President Emmanuel Macron is determined to raise the presidential and the Lebanese-Syrian border files with American President Joe Biden during a French-American summit on June 7.
The daily said that Macron has floated the idea of deploying international forces on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stem flows of irregular migrants and weapons to Lebanon. The idea was rejected by Lebanese and Arab officials who visited Paris in the past weeks, ad-Diyar said.
Western countries, in particular the U.S. and France, have come forward with a series of proposals for a cessation of hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border. Hezbollah has refused to enter into an agreement until a cease-fire is implemented in Gaza.
Initially, the proposals stipulated that Hezbollah would move its forces several kilometers away from the border, but a French diplomatic official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations said the latest proposal has abandoned this idea as Hezbollah would not agree to it unless Israel also halted its overflights in Lebanese airspace.
Instead, the new proposal would rely on a strengthened presence of the official Lebanese army and UNIFIL peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon to enforce the cessation of hostilities, with a long-term aim of negotiations for demarcation of the land border between Lebanon and Israel.
