Hezbollah calls for 'sovereignist president,' but says 'work is slow'

BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc released a statement following its weekly meeting, calling for the election of a “sovereignist president, capable of facing up to the challenges.”

Over a year of deadlock since Michel Aoun’s term ended in Oct. 2022 and little progress has been made. The Hezbollah statement aptly referred to efforts as “slow.”

“Regarding the presidential vacancy in Lebanon, work is still slow. The candidates and the political and parliamentary forces involved are still studying the process and solutions for the presidential election, in line with the national pact and the Constitution," the text said.

"We are closely following the actions of those working to put an end to the presidential vacancy. We will very soon be announcing our official position on this issue,” the party’s deputies said, without clarifying what the “position” will be in regards to or in relation to.

For several weeks now, ambassadors from what is known as The Quintet (United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar) have been touring the Lebanese political scene, meeting with various political leaders, in an attempt to unblock the presidential election, currently frozen with no clear majority in support of any one candidate.

Parliament has met twelve times in an attempt to elect a successor to Michel Aoun, but around a third of MPs remain undecided, with the other two-thirds split between support for Marada leader Sleiman Frangieh and former Finance Minister Jihad Azour. Hezbollah and Amal are backing the former while the main Christian parties and part of the opposition are backing Azour.

In the party’s statement, Hezbollah's elected representatives also commented on the latest developments in the war in Gaza, accusing Israel of seeking to "gobble up the Gaza Strip and drive out its inhabitants."

"Israeli terrorism continues to be supported by the US administration and its allies.”