Caretaker Prime Minsiter Najib Mikati and French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo at the Grand Serail on Thursday Jan. 19, 2023. (Credit: @grandserail/ Twitter)
BEIRUT — French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo met with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday.
With Mikati, Grillo discussed the consultations she had with French President Emmanuel Macron on Lebanon, the Grand Serail tweeted following the meeting.
“In this meeting, we stressed the need for the work of all institutions to function, including the election of a President of the Republic, and the need for a government that can work to solve all the issues that the Lebanese want answers to,” Grillo said after the meeting, according to the Grand Serail.
Lebanon entered a dual executive vacuum on Oct. 31 when President Michel Aoun's term ended. Eleven parliamentary sessions have been held to elect a president, and yet none has been elected to succeed Aoun; meanwhile the government, which resigned in May following parliamentary elections, is still functioning in a caretaker capacity.
The Grand Serail also tweeted that Grillo noted after the meeting that she had discussed the issue of energy and oil with Mikati, highlighting in particular France's interest in “the attempt to facilitate the energy interconnection project between Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon in partnership with the World Bank.”
Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian officials signed documents in early 2022 consolidating a deal under which Jordan will supply electricity to Lebanon by way of Syria; however, this deal has yet to materialize.
The agreement, along with a separate deal that is still under negotiation for Lebanon to receive gas from Egypt by way of Jordan and Syria — both of which are being brokered by the United States and are expected to be partially financed by the World Bank — have been touted by international and local officials as a crucial step toward solving Lebanon’s electricity woes.
In response to a question about French consultations with the United States and Saudi Arabia to elect a president of Lebanon, Grillo reportedly concluded by saying that “France is working with all partners on this issue.”
Grillo also met Berri, at Ain al-Tineh, “where they reviewed the general situation and bilateral relations between the two countries,” the state-run National News Agency reported Thursday.