Salam Meets Lavrov, Says No Progress on Presidency despite 'Major Efforts'

W460

Prime Minister Tammam Salam held talks Wednesday in New York with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The talks were held in the presence of Foreign Minister and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil and Lebanon's envoy to the U.N. Nawwaf Salam.

After the meeting, Salam told reporters that “major efforts are being exerted regarding the presidency but there is nothing new or tangible that indicates that the issue is nearing a solution,” LBCI television said.

“No date has been set until the moment for the meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon that French President Francois Hollande promised to hold in Paris but he said that can be held before the end of the year,” Salam noted.

According to media reports, Hollande told Salam on Tuesday that he would raise the issue of Lebanon's presidential vacuum during all of his upcoming meetings in New York, “especially with the Saudi and Iranian delegations.”

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.

Hariri's initiative followed a Paris meeting with Franjieh.

The ex-PM's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties.

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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