Progressive Socialist Party President Taymour Joumblatt in his Beirut office, during an interview with L'Orient-Le Jour. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Progressive Socialist Party leader Taymour Joumblatt met Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Meerab on Tuesday, as part of an initiative launched by the Druze party to initiate dialogue toward resolving the presidential deadlock in Lebanon.
At the end of the meeting at FL headquarters, MP Akram Chehayeb told the press that "we must seriously seek common denominators between the political forces, to achieve the election of a president who unites, not divides.”
"The purpose of our visit today is not to launch a new initiative or propose new names," he said.
The PSP launched this initiative — which will see Joumblatt and his delegation visiting the headquarters of the Free Patriotic Movement (Aounist) for talks with Gebran Bassil — following Bassil’s trip to Doha and a visit from French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Another group of MPs, the ex-Hariri-ans of the National Moderation Bloc, have been trying to launch their own initiative for "concertations" between MPs over the last several weeks, but to no avail.
The Speaker of the House makes any convening of Parliament conditional on a national dialogue being held beforehand, which the Opposition rejects. Nabih Berri and Hezbollah refuse to accept any call for dialogue unless it is issued by the head of the legislature.