Suleiman Meets Hollande as Paris Prepares for Hariri-Jumblat Talks

Negotiations over the presidential deadlock moved again to the French capital after parliament failed for the seventh time to elect a new head of state on Wednesday.

Former President Michel Suleiman met on Thursday with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Media reports also revealed that Suleiman held talks with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Wednesday over the presidential juncture.

Meanwhile, head of al-Mustaqbal Movement and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is scheduled to meet with Jumblat in the French capital on Friday.

The talks will be the first between the two leaders in over one year.

The Druze leader had delegated Health Minister Wael Abou Faour to the Moroccan city of Casablanca where he met with Hariri to prepare for the anticipated talks.

Jumblat has repeatedly stressed that he will not endorse Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun or Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea for office.

He also rejected withdrawing the nomination of Democratic Gathering MP Henri Helou “for the sake of the Central Bank chief or Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji.”

Suleiman left office on May 25 without a successor to lead the state in the coming six years, as differences between the March 14 and the March 8 alliances prevented the election of a new president.

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Y.R.