Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea sits with the Maronite bishop of Antelias, Antoine Bou Najm, in Maarab, Feb. 21, 2023. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The Maronite Bishop of Antelias, Antoine Bou Najm, met on Tuesday with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab ahead of a potential meeting between Christian parties to break Lebanon's presidential election deadlock.
Geagea's Lebanese Forces party is headquartered in Maarab, Mount Lebanon governorate.
"We discussed many issues," Najm said after the meeting, which he described as "good," according to the state-run National News Agency.
Lebanon has had no president since former head of state Michel Aoun's six-year term ended on Oct. 31. Parliament, which is entrusted with electing a new president, has failed to do so in 11 separate voting sessions since September.
The country has also been without a fully empowered cabinet since legislative elections in May.
In early February, the heads of Lebanon's churches appointed Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai to convene the Christian MPs, who remain deeply divided and unable to agree on a presidential candidate.
Lebanon's presidents, by tradition, come from the Maronite community.
Delegated by Rai, Bishop Bou Najm began his meetings on Feb. 15 at the headquarters of the Free Patriotic Movement in Sin al-Fil just outside Beirut. There, he met with the party leader Gebran Bassil — among the first figures to have urged the Maronite church to sponsor a presidential election dialogue.
Geagea had set conditions for his participation in the dialogue, saying that "if the alleged meeting in Bkirki [the headquarters of the Maronite church] is not likely to lead to concrete results, it is better not to hold it."
Antoine Mrad, Geagea's advisor for presidential affairs, told L'Orient-Le Jour that a delegation from the LF met with Rai. "To ensure the success of the meeting, we have proposed two solutions: to organize a kind of vote that would lead to a candidate or to reach an inter-Christian agreement around a figure," Mrad said.
"A possible failure of the Bkirki meeting would make the Christians responsible for blocking a deadlock that concerns them first," he added.