Jumblat Calls for Approving Appointments in 'Single Package', Urges Compromise over Presidency

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat called on Monday for an end to the various crises that have been crippling Lebanon's political and daily life, demanding that a solution be reached on security appointments and the vacuum in the presidency.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “Consensus must be reached on a complete package of appointments.”

The appointments must be completely approved without allowing one side to impose its conditions over another in order to avert ministerial paralysis, he explained.

Regarding the presidential vacuum, the MP stressed: “It is time to end futile squabbles over this issue.”

All sides must resort to a settlement in order to agree on a compromise candidate to end the crisis, which will consequently restore authority to the constitution and state institutions, added Jumblat.

“The current local and regional circumstances have proven that there is difficulty for any of the major candidates to achieve their goal of becoming president,” he noted.

“There is therefore no escape from reaching a settlement and agreeing on a compromise candidate” otherwise Lebanon is forever destined to remain at this impasse, argued the PSP chief.

Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the polls.

M.T.

G.K.