Geagea accuses Hezbollah of using dialogue to block elections

BEIRUT — In a dig at Hezbollah, accusing the party of using dialogue as an excuse for blocking the process, Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea said in a statement that "there is no other solution to the election than an election."

"Anyone who says that presidential elections are impossible without dialogue is clearly saying: If you don't accept my candidate, there won't be a president. This is totally unacceptable," Geagea said the LF statement, relayed by AFP.

Lebanon has been without a president for over a year now, despite twelve fruitless attempts on the part of the government to hold sessions aimed at resolving the issue. Michel Aoun, whose term ended in Oct. 2022, remains without a successor. Hezbollah regularly advocates for there to be further discussions among political groups before going forward with the election.

"Let's be clear: the presidential election is an election. Constitutionally, it is an election, and in practice it is an election, whether there are prior arrangements or not," Geagea said.

Geagea claims that for a year and five months now, he has been trying to make "arrangements" with a majority of parliamentary blocs. "But our initiatives were aborted by the obstruction of the sessions. We tried to find an agreement around a third choice, but this was also aborted by the obstinacy of supporting the same candidate," again directing his criticism toward the Hezbollah-Amal alliance, which has supported Sleiman Frangieh from the outset.

Geagea also added that although his choice of candidate had failed to attract the support of "a majority of parliamentary groups," he had nevertheless managed to bring the opposition parties together on two occasions — in support of Michel Moawad and again for Jihad Azour — unlike Hezbollah's candidate, who has remained the same since the beginning.

The LF had initially backed Michel Moawad, MP for Zghorta, before changing position and backing former minister Jihad Azour instead. This second candidacy also won the support of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM, Aounist), a Hezbollah ally which, however, strongly opposes the Sleiman Frangieh option.