Berri says to call for vote once Azour's nomination becomes 'serious'

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he will “immediately” call for a presidential election session once Jihad Azour’s nomination becomes “serious.”

According to media reports, the opposition and the Free Patriotic Movement are expected to announce Azour’s nomination on Saturday.

“The nomination of ex-minister Jihad Azour is still mere intentions and once his nomination becomes serious I will immediately call for a session,” Berri said in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

He added that domestic and international pressures will not force him to hold a session that would not lead to a new president.

“If I wanted to repeat the scenario of the previous sessions, I would have called for a session every week, but with the lack of seriousness and out of respect for parliament, which has become a mockery for a lot of parties, I won’t, and some slanderers inside and outside the country will not make me do so,” Berri added.

“Should we keep exhausting people with security measures around the parliament and make ourselves a mockery by holding useless sessions? The goal is to reach solutions and this is what we’re doing every day,” the Speaker went on to say.

Moreover, Berri told Asharq al-Awsat that France is “still clinging to Franjieh’s nomination.”