Berri says held 'beneficial and promising' talks with Quintet envoys

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday held a meeting in Ain el-Tineh with the ambassadors of the member states of the five-nation group for Lebanon, which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.

The one-hour meeting tackled “the latest developments, especially the presidential juncture,” the National News Agency said.

“The stance was unified and the meeting was beneficial and promising,” Berri for his part said after the meeting.

The ambassadors will also meet with a number of political forces in the coming hours.

Informed sources told the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal in remarks published Tuesday that the ambassadors’ new endeavor, which coincides with the Qatari envoy’s behind-the-scene meetings in Beirut, represents a new exploratory attempt aimed at seeking exits for the presidential crisis.

“It will involve discussions and consultations on means to achieve a presidential breakthrough more than it will be a new initiative,” the sources said.

“No candidates will be proposed during this period but there will rather be an exploration of opinions and reconciliation of viewpoints, based on the latest ambassadors’ meeting at the residence of Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari in Yarze,” the sources added.

“The important proposal is related to the president election’s mechanism, in an attempt to benefit from the atmosphere that engulfed the session that extended the army chief’s term,” the sources went on to say.