As Parliament meets for a 13th time to attempt to elect a new president, March 14 parliamentary sources said intensive contacts will begin next Monday between their coalition’s leadership and Patriarch Bechara Rai.
The talks will aim to achieve a breakthrough in the presidential file and feel out the other factions, especially Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and the March 8 forces, in the hopes of persuading them to back a new consensus candidate.
Separately, Lebanese diplomatic sources at the Vatican said the Holy See encourages and supports any effort to end the presidential crisis.
The same sources added that Rai’s presence in Rome, and the upcoming meeting between him and Prime Minister Saad Hariri next Monday to discuss the crisis, may facilitate a breakthrough because the patriarch may consult Vatican diplomats about any proposals.
In this context, parliamentary sources in March 8 said they had heard that March 14 would ask the patriarch to name a specific person for the presidency so that this name could be marketed to Arab and Western capitals concerned directly or indirectly with the Lebanese file.
The sources added that it has become clear that none of the current candidates, including Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and March 8’s own choice, Aoun, who has never officially announced his candidacy, could garner the support needed from all Lebanese factions.
Political sources said that this proposal could only come from the head of the church, because if it came from any other party, particularly a Muslim one, it would be deemed unacceptable to Christians, pointing out the LF’s reaction to the nomination of Henry Helou by Walid Jumblatt.
The same political sources ruled out the possibility of former President Amine Gemayel being re-elected, citing several reasons, first and foremost that he is a March 14 partisan and would therefore not receive unanimous support.
The March 14 parliamentary sources said that if the patriarch could be convinced to put forward a name or names, as Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir did before him when he gave the French foreign minister five names, the matter would remain under wraps until they could gauge the reaction of local Lebanese factions as well as the opinions of Arab and Western allies.
However, parliamentary sources in the FPM felt that such a move might embarrass Aoun if the patriarch proposes a name that would be difficult to reject or ignore.
But they emphasized that until now there is no indication that Aoun, who continues to be supported by Hezbollah, will back down from his “right” to represent the Christians of Lebanon as their president.
No comments:
Post a Comment