The main Christian political forces in Lebanon refuse to hold them responsible for the presidential vacuum simply because they did not respond to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s dialogue call.
While the “Lebanese Forces” and “Lebanese Phalange” parties aim to obstruct, without hesitation, in Berri’s own stadium, which refuses to call for an open election session in successive rounds and stipulates dialogue first, the “Free Patriotic Movement” confirms its openness to all scenarios to remove the presidential file from the neck. The bottle.
Berri said in his last statement that “the presidential problem is among the Maronites and among them,” while the former head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, believed that “the impossible conditions of the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement disrupted President Berri’s initiative and aborted the opportunity for dialogue.”
The “Forces” and “Phalange” parties reject any expanded national dialogue before electing a president, while the “Free Patriotic” sets conditions for participation “that do not make it a useless traditional dialogue.”
“Lebanese Forces”
A member of the “Strong Republic” bloc, MP Ghassan Hasbani, responded to Berri and Jumblatt, stressing that “whoever prevents the election sessions from taking place with the aim of imposing his candidate will be the one who disrupts these elections and ignores the National Accord Document and the Constitution,” while referring to Berri, who adheres to “ Hezbollah nominated the head of the Marada Movement, former MP Suleiman Franjieh.
Hasbani told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We, and forces in the opposition, have explicitly announced that we do not support any step that would be a precondition for implementing the constitution. Our position is to defend the constitution that emerged from the National Accord Document in Taif, and those in a position of constitutional responsibility must implement it by opening the doors of the House of Representatives without setting preconditions such as dialogue, or inventing new norms that distance us from the constitution,” he pointed out, “the opposition forces are committed to There is constant communication with multiple political forces regarding the presidential approach, and there are initiatives to find commonalities by member states of the Five-Year Committee, which may reach results that facilitate the election process, but they do not violate the Constitution because they are not a precondition for opening the doors of the House of Representatives.
He added: “It may be useful to disclose the results of the tour of the French envoy (Jean-Yves Le Drian) in terms of the presidential specifications shared between the Lebanese political forces to contribute to facilitating the presentation of presidential options. International initiatives are for facilitation and not to replace the internal Lebanese role.”
“Lebanese Phalange”
Member of the “Lebanese Phalange” bloc, MP Salim Al-Sayegh, considered that “blaming the Maronites responsible for the obstruction deviates from the truth and transfers the problem from (national-political) to (sectarian-authoritarian), which is an old discourse that some politicians put out when they are in trouble,” warning of “sectarianism.” The presidential problem is the killing of the Maronites and Lebanon.”
Al-Sayegh added in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat: “The reality is that the overwhelming majority of Maronites voted for a centrist candidate named Jihad Azour, and whoever prevented the completion of the election session is the one who is terrified of the possibility of this candidate’s arrival. Therefore, we will not respond to the Maronite President Berri Bloom’s speech except from a national standpoint. We are proud of political pluralism within the Christian community, and we hope that this becomes a general model.”
Al-Sayegh pointed out, “Since the path of obstruction began instead of the path of regularity of the democratic process, we have called for international intervention to liberate the Lebanese legitimate decision because we see that internationalizing the issue is the door to forcing Iran to deal constructively with the Lebanese file.” He added: “This internationalization came successively and in multiple forms. Yes, the presidential file has been out of the hands of the Lebanese. I am certain that when international consensus is reached with Iran, elections will become possible and quickly.”
“Free Patriot”
For his part, member of the “Strong Lebanon” bloc, MP Jimmy Jabbour, considered that “the tone of holding Christian forces responsible for not electing a president is repeated from time to time, but it does not reflect the reality of the situation.” He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “In principle, there is no unified Christian force. We intersected with (the forces), (the Phalange), and other forces in the name of Jihad Azour, and this intersection was not Christian… Add that the position on the call for dialogue is not a unified Christian position.”
Jabour stressed that “the movement does not play the game of obstruction, and is open to all scenarios.” The movement had observations on the dialogue called for by Berri, but we were not informed of our non-participation in it, but we provided conditions and observations for its success. Therefore, Berri should not try to escape from the pressures imposed on him to secure the conditions for the success of the dialogue by placing responsibilities on us. He added: “When he announced his intention to call for dialogue for 7 days and then hold a session in successive sessions to elect a president, we welcomed that, but when he established the executive framework, we had our observations.”
Jabour hoped that “the current international interest in the Lebanese presidential file will be effective in bringing the views of the Lebanese parties closer together,” stressing that “the Lebanese forces, in return, must be cooperative and responsive to international efforts so that the vacuum does not prolong.”
2023-09-29 23:59:30
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