Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai will meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday “as part of the efforts France is making for Lebanon and the Lebanese,” Bkirki’s press office said in a statement Saturday.
This visit is planned as Lebanon is almost four years deep in a devastating socioeconomic crisis and has been without a president for seven months.
The statement announced that Rai “will travel next Tuesday, May 30, to the French capital, Paris, where he will meet … Macron who has sent him an official meeting invitation.”
The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. at the Elysee Palace.
France endorses Sleiman Frangieh’s candidacy for the presidency in the name of “pragmatism," and is determined to prevent any prolonged presidential vacuum in Lebanon. France believes that concessions to Frangieh's main backer, Hezbollah, are necessary to enable reformist candidate Nawaf Salam to become prime minister.
Rai had repeatedly said that the only solution to end the presidential vacuum in Lebanon is "the holding of an international conference" devoted to the issue, under the auspices of the United Nations.
Parliament has held 11 failed presidential election sessions to name a successor to Michel Aoun whose term as president ended on Oct. 31.
In February, the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar met in Paris and unanimously agreed to sanction Lebanese officials who are blocking the election of a new president. However, to date, these sanctions have not been announced.