Report: Solution to presidential impasse expected before June

A solution to the presidential impasse is near and a president might be elected before June, an official told al-Joumhouria.

Diplomatic Arab sources also told the daily, in remarks published Thursday, that talks are ongoing between the five nations that took part in the latest Paris meeting and that France might send an envoy to Beirut in the coming days in an attempt to solve the presidential crisis.

Ad-Diyar newspaper had said earlier this week that the five-nation group on Lebanon is preparing to hold a meeting to "pick a consensual president, from outside the establishment that took part in power over the past three decades, who is accepted inside and outside the country and who would be able to devise solutions for crises and rein in the collapse."

It quoted political sources as saying that June will carry good news for Lebanon should the current agreements in the region succeed.

Lebanon has been without a head of state since Michel Aoun's mandate expired last year, with a caretaker cabinet overseeing the responsibilities of government amid a financial collapse that is stretching into its third year.