Lebanese Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab on Oct. 3, 2022 at the Baabda presidential palace. (Credit: Dalati Nohra/Handout/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab said on Wednesday that "there will be no dialogue" on the presidential election file before the end of the year. Bou Saab's remarks followed his meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the latter's Ain al-Tineh residence.
Berri had planned to convert Thursday's 10th parliamentary session dedicated to the presidential election into a dialogue table, in order to find a compromise between the different parties and break the deadlock in choosing the country's next head of state. But this initiative — the speaker's second of its nature — has again fallen through due to the reluctance of the main Christian parties, both the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), who showed little enthusiasm for this approach.
Bou Saab is member of the FPM parliamentary bloc, though he is not an official member of the party.
"The idea of holding a dialogue before the end of the year, is not possible," the deputy speaker said, adding, however, that "we will not get out of the current crisis without having such a dialogue."
"I hope that we will reach a conviction [among all political groups] that dialogue is necessary," Bou Saab said from Ain al-Tineh.
He added that “there will be more serious work starting next year,” regarding the presidential election, explaining that "tomorrow's session will be an electoral session like the previous ones."
The nine previous sessions devoted to electing Lebanon's next president have been adjourned without reaching a result. At each session a group of MPs leave the chamber after an inconclusive first round of voting, leading Berri to declare quorum insufficient to continue to a second voting round.
Tomorrow's session will be the last session for the year 2022, Berri said last Thursday.
Bou Saab's visit to Berri took place after the deputy speaker visited Qatar, where he met with various officials.
In an interview to the Qatari Al-Sharq newspaper, he highlighted the "proactive" solidarity of Qatar towards Lebanon.
During the weekend, Lebanese Army commander-in-chief Joseph Aoun also met with officials in Doha. A trip perceived like a "political message that Gen. Aoun's candidacy for the presidency has the support of Qatar," an Arab diplomat told L'Orient-Le Jour.