Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari and Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari said Thursday that his country "does not veto" any potential candidates for the Lebanese presidential election, amid deadlock and a regional tug-of-war over whose name to champion in the vote.
Bukhari's comments came during a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai in Bkirki, according to the state-run National News Agency. His meeting with the patriarch is part of a string of similar visits with Lebanese political and religious figures since Wednesday.
"Saudi Arabia considers that the presidential election is a Lebanese internal political matter and that political choices should be made in Beirut," Bukhari said, quoted in a Patriarchate-issued statement.
Riyadh has "no objection to any candidate who will gain the confidence of the Lebanese," the statement added.
Further, Saudi Arabia "is careful not to be accused of blocking the presidential election. It does not veto candidates, does it support any particular candidate and refuses to be drawn into Lebanese internal affairs."
The Saudi diplomat then met with the leader of the Kataeb party, Samy Gemayel.
"We refuse to elect a candidate affiliated to Hezbollah," said Gemayel after the meeting.
"It is not a matter of replacing Sleiman Frangieh by another person affiliated to the same axis. The matter is related to a political choice and not a person," he added.
Gemayel also stressed the need for "the opposition parties to coordinate more."
"Today we continue to coordinate and establish a common strategy for the coming period," he said, noting that it is possible to "agree on another candidate and lead the battle [to get said candidate elected]."
"It is unacceptable that they maintain the equation 'their candidate or the vacuum' and push France and other countries to put pressure so that their candidate is elected," Gemayel criticized.
Lebanon has been in a political stalemate since the end of former president Michel Aoun's mandate on Oct. 31, 2022.
Parliament has still not succeeded in electing a new head of state due to the lack of political consensus.
On Wednesday, the Saudi ambassador went to the headquarters of the Lebanese Forces in Maarab where he met party leader Samir Geagea, a Christian ally of Riyadh. At the end of the meeting, Bukhari stated that "the presidential election is a sovereign Lebanese matter."
He also met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh the Grand Mufti of the Republic Abdel Latif Derian, the country's highest Sunni religious authority. Bukhari insisted during these meetings on the need to accelerate the election.