BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea is said to have set conditions to accept Free Patriotic Movement head MP Michel Aoun as a candidate for the presidency, sources familiar with the ongoing contacts to arrange a rare meeting between the two rival Maronite leaders said Tuesday.
However, it was not known whether Aoun would be able to meet these conditions which have not yet been made public, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri told his visitors that the third round of dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement will take place Friday. As for the agenda of the upcoming session, the speaker said that it would be determined by dialogue participants.
Berri said that Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri visited him Tuesday to reiterate his country’s support for the Future-Hezbollah dialogue and that the two discussed preparations for a possible meeting between Aoun and Geagea.
Berri hoped during the meeting with Asiri that the Hezbollah-Future dialogue and talks between Aoun and Geagea would enhance stability and lead to the election of a president.
As the presidential vacuum has entered its eighth month with no solution in sight, local attention has been focused in the past few weeks on the shuttle visits to Aoun’s residence in Rabieh and Geagea’s residence in Maarab, by MP Ibrahim Kanaan, secretary of the FPM, and Melhem Riyashi, head of the LF’s media and communication section, the sources said.
They added that the Kanaan-Riyashi talks were designed to set the stage and prepare the agenda for the meeting between Aoun and Geagea to resolve the presidential election dilemma.
While Aoun is supported by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies for the presidency, Geagea has been named by the March 14 coalition as its candidate for the country’s top Christian post.
Following several rounds of talks between Kanaan and Riyashi, the sources said a meeting between Aoun and Geagea is imminent, though neither side risked setting a final date for it or its venue.
According to the sources, the outcome of the ongoing contacts between the two Christian parties has shown that both Aoun and Geagea are convinced of the need to meet to discuss well-known matters relating to the presidential election according to the 1989 Taif Accord, including the flaws in Christian representation.
“The big achievement that has so far been made is that the nature of contacts and letters [between the two sides] suggested that Geagea has become convinced of Aoun’s right to this post [presidency], but he has conditions and demands before announcing this stance,” the sources said. They added that it was not clear if Aoun was ready to meet these conditions.
However, the sources cautioned that any deal between Aoun and Geagea over the presidential election is bound to encounter opposition from the other Christian parties.
“If a meeting takes place between Geagea and Aoun and if it proves to be successful – that’s if the two leaders agreed on a road map that could bring Aoun to the Baabda Palace – new difficulties lie ahead: Convincing the other Christian parties, particularly the Kataeb Party, independents and all Christian political groups that are part of the March 14 coalition, to accept any agreement that might be reached between the FPM and LF leaders, including the adoption of Aoun’s candidacy to the presidency,” the sources said.
Aoun’s supporters contend that the FPM leader is the only politician or the sole presidential candidate who can extract any concessions from Hezbollah, especially concerning domestic issues, including the divisive issue of the party’s arsenal.
The sources recalled that it was Geagea who took the initiative, inspired by regional powers with an international consent, to offer to meet Aoun who immediately accepted it and decided to be positive toward it.
As part of the ongoing indirect contacts between them, Geagea presented some questions to Aoun who responded with a list of own questions, without giving any specific reply to the LF chief’s questions, the sources said.
In addition to the presidential election deadlock, other items on the agenda of talks between Aoun and Geagea are a new electoral law to ensure true Christian representation in Parliament, financial and administrative reforms, the Syrian refugee crisis along with its adverse effects on the security and socioeconomic conditions, Hezbollah’s intervention in the Syrian war, and the repercussions of the Syrian conflict on Lebanon’s stability, the sources added.
Meanwhile, Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc welcomed the ongoing dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah as well as the ongoing talks between the FPM and the LF.
“The bloc encourages the ongoing dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement and the other dialogue in which it is involved, the dialogue between the FPM and the LF,” the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by Aoun at his residence in Rabieh.
“Positive results have emerged from the two dialogues. We of course hope to benefit from these positive results. The logic of dialogue must prevail in a country living a suffocating crisis,” it added.
Kataeb MP Sami Gemayel also welcomed attempts to bring about a rapprochement between rival Christian parties.
Speaking to reporters after meeting U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale, Gemayel said an inter-Christian rapprochement would leave its impact on a number of outstanding issues, particularly the presidential election.
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