In light of the impasse in Lebanon’s domestic political scene, namely over the presidential election, political sources closely monitoring developments said that new name would be added to the list of candidates.
This hopeful, they said, would break the sharp polarization due to his centrist stance, enabling him to be a consensus candidate.
Another source said Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai was in possession of a list of three presidential candidates that he would propose to Christian leaders soon. Rai’s list includes a diplomat, a military official and an economist, the source said.
Rai had a closed-door meeting with a number of ambassadors and provided them with an in-depth briefing about the atmosphere surrounding the electoral process.
For his part, a high-ranking figure in the March 14 alliance said Michel Aoun’s reluctance to nominate himself for presidency under the pretext that he is trying to win the support of rival blocs first was part of a clear Iranian maneuver. Iran’s project is aimed at keeping Lebanon under the effect of regional crises, to be used later in Western-Iranian negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. This method has been adopted by Iran since 2005, the source said.
The figure said proof of Iran’s intention was provided by the Iranian supreme leader’s military aide, who said last month that Iran’s line of defense is in south Lebanon.
The March 14 figure expressed fear that the outlook for the presidency would remain bleak so long as Tehran was in need of Lebanon regionally and even internationally.
This was also the apparent path taken by Hezbollah and other March 8 groups as evident in their switch of focus from the presidential election to the parliamentary elections, putting the issue of the presidency on the backburner.
An indicator that the presidential vacuum will last for some time is the fact that Western countries have expressed interest only in Lebanon’s security situation, such as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement during his visit to Beirut.
According to information made available to The Daily Star, a delegation dispatched by French President Francois Hollande will soon arrive to Lebanon. It may include Emmanuel Bonne, Hollande’s political adviser for North Africa and the Middle East, who has succeeded in opening good lines of communication with regional powers, including Iran.
The purpose of the delegation’s visit is to solve the presidential crisis, given the failure of “Lebanese solutions,” with Christian parties drowning in their personal disputes and other Lebanese factions benefiting from the prolongation of the void to maintain control over the executive and legislative branches.
A high-ranking official was told by a European ambassador in a recent visit that his country has developed a road map to deal with the situation in Lebanon, and it has formed a team which would work on maintaining communication between all Lebanese and regional players to avoid the prolongation of presidential vacuum.
Lebanon is vital to this country’s interests in the region, and its security cannot be compromised or left to the whims of the regional actors, the official said.
