Lebanese Forces' MPs leave Parliament after the postponement of the electoral session, due to lack of quorum, on Oct. 13, 2022. (Credit: An-Nahar)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah central council member Nabil Kaouk on Saturday blamed opposition parties for the various crises in Lebanon, notably the deadlocked presidential election. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's political opponent, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, said that the opposition had thwarted Hezbollah's plan regarding the presidential election.
In a partisan speech in Sour, South Lebanon, Kaouk blamed opposition groups, without specifically naming them, for the "complexity of crises at various levels."
Some 12 parliamentary sessions dedicated to appointing a new president since September 2022 have ended in failure, with no president elected due to a lack of political agreement among local political groups.
"The main reason for the complexity of crises at various levels is the [opposition groups'] insistence on disrupting internal and external initiatives", Kaouk said Saturday, in remarks reported by the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
He added that these groups should "wake up from their dreams."
"Lebanon is not defeated to accept a president who works to achieve the goals of the 2006 [Israeli war against Lebanon]," he added.
He expressed again Hezbollah's insistence on a president who would save Lebanon and protect the country's civil peace.
Hezbollah and the Amal Movement support Marada leader Suleiman Frangieh for the presidency.
Opposition groups, among them the LF, support the candidacy of IMF senior official Jihad Azour.
Both Hezbollah and the opposition have failed to garner enough votes for their candidate to be elected.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea also discussed the presidential election in a speech on Saturday given on the occasion of the second anniversary of the launch of the "Sovereign Front" in Maarab, the NNA reported.
Geagea said that Hezbollah's axis insists on "renewing itself for another six years" through the presidency but that the opposition "did a tremendous job to prevent this renewal, even if this matter was not easy."
Geagea also accused Hezbollah of having colluded with some in the French government to win the presidency through French-Iranian pressure on other international powers to achieve their goal. However, Geagea said that there were people who stood up against this plan alongside regional and other countries.
Paris had initially proposed an alleged deal that would see the presidency go to Frangieh and the prime minister's post go to the opposition's favored candidate at the time, judge and diplomat Nawaf Salam. This proposal was rejected not only by some local players but also by France's international partners, according to various sources. However, in an interview with L'Orient le-Jour published on Sept. 26, the French president's special envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, called on Lebanese politicians to "find a third way" to overcome the presidential crisis and said that "neither of the current candidacies seems to [him] capable of solving the problem."