2023-06-13 23:41:22
The Lebanese parliament was called to a session to be held on the fourteenth of June to try to elect a president for the republic, noting that the position has been vacant for eight months.
However, Parliament is sharply divided between a camp that supports Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, and does not have the necessary majority to impose its candidate, former minister Suleiman Franjieh, and its opponents, especially Christian parties that support the senior official in the International Monetary Fund, Jihad Azour.
French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said in a press conference that France calls for “taking this session seriously and seizing the opportunity it provides to get out of the crisis.”
And she stressed that her country “continues to call for a way out of the crisis for eight months.”
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called on the Lebanese parliament to “get the job done.”
“We believe that as long as a president is not elected, parliament should continue until the job is done,” Miller told reporters.
“We urge the country’s leadership to feel the urgent need to meet the crucial needs of the Lebanese people, starting with the election of a president,” he added.
The spokesman stated that the third official in the US State Department, Victoria Nuland, spoke on Monday by phone with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in this regard.
In Paris, Legendre announced that French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna will meet on Friday with her predecessor, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron a few days ago as a “special envoy to Lebanon.”
The spokeswoman indicated that the minister would brief Le Drian on the content of recent contacts with Lebanese officials.
Legendre added that the minister will receive Le Drian to discuss his “specific mission,” stressing that the matter involves “pursuing our efforts for an urgent exit from the Lebanese crisis, and this matter reflects the priority that French diplomacy gives to this issue.”
She also stressed that Le Drian would carry out the task entrusted to him “in close coordination and consultation” with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On the other hand, the French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman indicated that any date for Le Drian’s upcoming visit to Lebanon had not been “notified” yet.
When asked regarding the possibility of holding a conference for Lebanon in Paris, Legendre said, “We must first make an assessment of the parliamentary session that will be held tomorrow.”
Last week, Macron appointed former Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as a “special envoy to Lebanon,” in a new attempt to find a “consensual and effective” solution to the Lebanese crisis, which worsened, especially following the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020.
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