Bassil says 'open' to presidential dialogue with strict deadline

An agreement on Lebanon's next president can only be reached through dialogue, Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said.

"No camp can impose a president on the other. Only dialogue can help us reach an agreement on a (president's) name," Bassil said in a press conference Tuesday.

The FPM leader revealed that his party is currently holding talks with most of the other Lebanese parties in order to reach common denominators.

"We will take initiatives and we will be open to dialogue to reach an agreement on a program, qualifications, and a name," Bassil said, adding that open electoral sessions should be held in case no agreement is reached within a close deadline.

"We will not waste any positive opportunity and we will show cooperation and openness," Bassil said as he slammed the caretaker government for infringing on the president's post and warned of a gradual exclusion of Christians from power, in case no president is elected or a president is imposed on them.

"We will not accept that a president be imposed on us against our convictions and against the choice of the people we represent," he said.