Report: Ayrault in Beirut Next Month with New Proposal

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is expected to visit Beirut next month in a renewed effort to resolve Lebanon's presidential deadlock, As Safir daily reported on Tuesday.

Ayrault will come to Lebanon on May 27, bringing with him a proposal that also includes the election of a Senate through the so-called Orthodox Gathering draft-law, said the report.

According to As Safir, the Senate's election was lately discussed by the ambassadors of the International Support Group for Lebanon. One of the diplomats later took the proposal to Paris.

Ayrault's visit would come a month after French President Francois Hollande made a two-day trip to Lebanon during which he urged Lebanese politicians to elect a new president.

"I want to come back to Lebanon to meet the president. I don't have a solution for that but the answer is with you, the Lebanese legislators," he said.

Baabda Palace has been vacant since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014.

More than 30 parliament sessions have failed to elect a new president amid divisions between the country's political groups.

G.K.

D.A.