Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. (Credit: AFP archive photo)
BEIRUT — Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Saturday that his party has "no problem with any group or person" working to "save" Lebanon. Geagea's remarks come as the country is mired in an unprecedented economic crisis and is confronting a power vacuum at both the governmental and presidential levels.
During an event organized in Meerab, the party's headquarters in Kesrouan, with student supporters of the LF, Geagea argued that his party "has no problem with any group or personality that can work towards saving the country …. The only criterion is whether someone can work seriously in the interest of Lebanon."
"We are facing a strong group of non-sovereigntists who do not want to restore the Lebanese state," Geagea said, in a possible reference to Hezbollah and its allies, who he regularly criticizes.
LF MPs have thus far voted for Zgharta MP Michel Moawad at each of Parliament's electoral sessions to choose a new president. These sessions have to date failed to succeed in electing a president.
Last week, Geagea attacked his political rival Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil, an unofficial candidate for the presidency, accusing him of being one of the causes of the presidential vacuum. While the LF and other parties advocate the election of a president who will stand up to Hezbollah, the FPM and its allies are calling for a "consensus" president. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said he favors a president "who does not stab the resistance [a reference to his own party] in the back."