The Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Hossam Zaki, confirmed that there is a great difference in views between the Lebanese political leaders, which may enter the country into a presidential vacuum in the event that a president is not elected before the constitutional deadline expires on the 31st of this month.
A statement issued by the General Secretariat of the Arab League, following meetings that Zaki held with the leaders of the parliamentary blocs, the outgoing President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, and the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, stressed that the Arab League “is keen to keep pace with Lebanon in all the important stations, and sensing from it the dangerous repercussions that will ensue from the situation.” The country will enter a presidential vacuum in the event that a president is not elected before the constitutional deadline expires on the 31st of this month. The university’s statement said that Zaki went to Beirut, commissioned by the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, with the aim of anticipating the views of political leaders on the upcoming presidential election, and looking at ways to address the political blockage in the country.
The Secretary-General’s personal envoy began his visit by holding several meetings with leaders of parliamentary blocs from all colors of the political spectrum, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Free Patriotic Movement leader Gibran Bassil, Lebanese Forces Party leader Samir Geagea, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, and Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel, in addition to a number of deputies and independents. Zaki also met with Aoun and Mikati, and held talks with Foreign Minister Abdullah Bu Habib.