BEIRUT: A visit to Saudi Arabia by Lebanese Forces leader and March 14 presidential candidate Samir Geagea and Kataeb MP Sami Gemayel will focus on the presidential election stalemate and other Lebanon issues.
“Domestic issues will dominate talks in Saudi Arabia between senior Saudi officials and LF leader Samir Geagea and MP Sami Gemayel,” Minister of State Nabil de Freij, a member of the Future bloc in Parliament, told a local radio station Tuesday.
Geagea and Gemayel flew to Saudi Arabia Monday.
A statement from Geagea’s office said the LF chief would meet high-ranking Saudi officials, but failed to spell out the issues he would discuss.
Media reports suggested a meeting that would bring together Geagea, Gemayel and the head of the Future Movement, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The reports, however, could not be independently verified.
The visits come amid a presidential vacuum in Lebanon as rival lawmakers have been unable to elect a head of state since former President Michel Sleiman’s term ended in May.
Although Geagea was nominated for the presidential race by the Future Movement-led March 14 coalition, recent comments made by Hariri suggested that the bloc was reconsidering its candidate.
After talks last week with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Rome, Hariri called for consensus on a new president as the only way to break the 5-month-old deadlock.
But Geagea has so far refused to drop his bid, saying that withdrawing his candidacy at this point would cause more problems than it would solve.
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