Fletcher Meets Berri, Calls for Avoiding a Prolonged Vacancy in Presidency
UK Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher noted on Friday that failure to elect a president before the term of President Michel Suleiman ends will be “setback” for Lebanon.
He said after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri: “It is clear, sadly, that time is running out for parliament to elect a new president on time.”
“We are now moving into a new phase. All those who claim leadership of the country have a responsibility to find ways to work together to avoid a prolonged vacancy,” he added.
“The national interest must come first. Our role remains to support that effort, while ensuring the continuity of our stabilization and humanitarian effort,” stressed the ambassador.
“From the beginning of this process, we have judged that our role is to help remove any international obstacles to an agreement made in Lebanon, and this we have tried to do,” Fletcher said.
“The Lebanese people deserve their own president, and we want a partner with whom we can work to provide security, justice and opportunity,” he continued
“If Sunday’s deadline passes, it will be a setback for Lebanon, but the outcome is not a failure of the Lebanese people. They have our full support and solidarity,” he concluded.
The parliament failed for the fifth time on Thursday to elect a president, raising fears that the vacuum in the country's top Christian post would affect Lebanon's power-sharing agreement under which the president should be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.
Suleiman's six-year term ends of Saturday.
He said that he wanted to end his term by handing over the presidency to his successor and not with vacuum prevailing in the country.
“I had a dream to hand over the presidency to a new head of state elected by the parliament, but this wasn't achievable,” he added.
M.T.
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