Berri and Jumblat in Wait and See Mode after March 14 Proposal

Speaker Nabih Berri has suspended efforts he was exerting with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat to resolve the presidential deadlock after the March 14 alliance announced a new initiative.

Berri told several officials who visited him on Tuesday that he and Jumblat were severely criticized when the PSP chief said he was in contact with the speaker and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to convince the rival parties to swiftly elect a new president.

“There were rumors that Muslims were choosing the Christian president. We now stopped our efforts to see what they (March 14 officials) will do,” Berri said in the remarks published by local dailies on Wednesday.

The March 14 alliance on Tuesday kept its support for Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea but said it was ready to agree on another consensual candidate for the presidential elections.

The camp holds onto the candidacy of Geagea, al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said, but expressed the alliance's “full readiness to discuss with the rest of the factions the name of a person who receives the backing of all the Lebanese and who is committed to the country's principles.”

Berri told his visitors that he knew about the initiative from the media. He said it was not new because it was previously proposed by Geagea.

Its new aspect is the formation of a committee to hold talks with March 8 officials, Berri added.

But he stressed that the March 14 camp should first convince Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun with the initiative, although his answer was swift.

The Change and Reform bloc of Aoun said Tuesday that the proposal “offers nothing new.”

Any suggestion that does not adhere to Aoun's “national initiative is aimed at wasting time,” it said.

The FPM chief had called for direct elections, and members of his bloc submitted a draft-law to parliament last month to make a constitutional amendment that would allow the people to elect the head of state in two stages.

Change and Reform members have been boycotting parliamentary sessions aimed at finding a successor to President Michel Suleiman whose term ended in May.

The latest boycott was on Tuesday when Berri adjourned the session to September 23 over lack of quorum.

The majority of the March 8 alliance's MPs, including Aoun's lawmakers, claim there should be consensus on a candidate before heading to the polls.

G.K.

H.K.