Al-Rahi Urges 'Political Community' to Find Presidential 'Settlement'
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called on the country's politicians to strike a political “settlement” aimed at ending Lebanon's protracting presidential vacuum, which has been running since May 2014.
“Today, let us close ranks – as political community, civil society and church followers – in order to preserve this country,” said al-Rahi during a pastoral visit to the Baabda District town of Araya.
“We call on the political community -- which is represented with us today through the presence of two MPs and representatives of political parties and movements – to exert efforts so that the State can have a president,” the patriarch added.
Warning that “there is rampant corruption and major paralysis,” al-Rahi cautioned that “our country has reached the tipping point, and whatever it takes, the political community must find the necessary settlement in order to embark on electing a new president.”
The patriarch also called on the international community to “separate the presidential crisis from the regional developments,” while urging the Lebanese to “take a brave and firm domestic decision in order to resolve our problem.”
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
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