Caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati (right) talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of COP27 in Egypt on Nov. 8, 2022. (Credit: Dalati Nohra)
BEIRUT — Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati continued his talks Tuesday with international leaders on the sidelines of COP27, the UN conference on global warming, discussing the election of a new head of state with French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Aoun's term in office ended on Oct. 31.
COP27, which is held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, brings together delegates from nearly 200 countries until Nov. 18.
Caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati (left) talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh on Nov. 8, 2022. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
During his meeting with Mikati, Macron insisted on "the need to prioritize the election of a president of the republic for a resumption of the work of the Lebanese institutions," according to the state-run National News Agency.
For his part, Guterres mentioned the possibility of the United Nations intervening in favor of holding presidential elections in Lebanon.
Lebanon has been without a president since Nov. 1 and has a caretaker government. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has assured that he will convene an electoral session dedicated to the presidential election every week until a new head of state is elected. To date, MPs have failed four times to elect a successor to Michel Aoun, due to lack of consensus. The next parliamentary election session is scheduled for Thursday morning.
'Continued support'
In addition, the caretaker prime minister met with his Tunisian counterpart, Najla Bouden, in the presence of the caretaker Lebanese Environment Minister Nasser Yassin. Bouden invited Mikati to participate in the 18th Summit of the Francophonie scheduled for Nov. 19 and 20 in Djerba, Tunisia.
Mikati then met with his Egyptian counterpart Mustapha Madbouli, and thanked Egypt for "its continued support" of Lebanon. Last week, during a meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi at the Arab League summit in Algiers, Egypt had promised vaccines and medicines to Lebanon, to help it fight the cholera epidemic that broke out in October.
Mikati also discussed bilateral relations between Lebanon and the United Kingdom with the head of British diplomacy James Cleverly.
He had already held a series of meetings on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, including with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, and several heads of state, with whom he discussed, among other issues, the maritime border between Lebanon and Cyprus and the preliminary agreement with the IMF on aid to Lebanon.