Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh has stressed that he “will not conspire against the resistance nor against its rivals and enemies,” days after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah openly announced that his party wants a president for Lebanon who “would reassure the resistance.”

“I’m ready for all possibilities. For the presidency and for failure to reach it. Others are fighting over it today as if it is a lottery prize whereas in fact it is a real ball of fire,” al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Franjieh as telling sources informed on his stance.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil's office said Friday in a statement that a meeting he had with Speaker Nabih Berri was not behind Hezbollah's back.

Al-Jadeed TV had reported Friday that Bassil had tried and failed to make a presidential deal with Berri in a meeting on Tuesday.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil did not run for presidency because he did not want to further complicate things, he told France 24 in a televised interview.

Bassil said Thursday that he opposes that Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh becomes a president because he does not agree with him on the same political program regarding reforms and building the state.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has stressed that the FPM will not endorse the presidential nomination of Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh, even if all other parties agree on him.

“The FPM would not lose if Suleiman Franjieh becomes president… and he does not represent a threat to us,” Bassil is heard telling supporters in a leaked audio recorded during his ongoing visit to Paris.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's press office said Thursday that the situation in 1990 was better than the Aoun-Bassil-Jreissati era of the past six years.

Bassil had said in a leaked audio from Paris that electing Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh as a president will bring Lebanon back to the nineties.

The Constitutional Council on Thursday dismissed two more electoral appeals filed over the results of the May 15 parliamentary elections.

The first appeal had been filed by the candidate Wassef al-Harakeh against MP Fadi Alameh over the Shiite seat in Baabda.

"It's a complete deadlock," change lawmaker Mark Daou told AFP, after parliament failed Thursday to elect a president for the sixth time. "We will not have a president before next year."

Lawmaker Michel Mouawad, who is seen as close to the United States, won the support of 43 of parliament's 128 MPs. But his tally was outnumbered by the 45 blank ballots cast by pro-Hezbollah lawmakers and fell well short of the margin needed for victory.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will call for a legislative session whenever the need arises, he told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday.

Many MPs including al-Kataeb and Change MPS, Michel Mouawad and other independent lawmakers had criticized a parliamentary session that discussed a letter by ex-President Michel Aoun. They walked out after voicing their objection.

Parliament convened Thursday for the sixth time and failed again to elect a president, with the post vacant since the mandate of Michel Aoun expired last month.

Parliament is split between supporters of Hezbollah and its opponents, neither having a clear majority.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on Wednesday said he rejects the “equation” of electing a president who is “close to Hezbollah” and designating “a PM who is close to the other camp.”

“The Hezbollah camp and our camp represent two parallel lines that will not meet until further notice. I hope Hezbollah will tomorrow change its political project and give up its ideology, which would allow us to meet within five minutes, but as things are now, there are totally opposite political projects,” Geagea said in an interview with the Akhbar al-Yawm news agency.