Qabalan emphasizes need to elect consensus president

The Jaafarite mufti Ahmad Qabalan, close to Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, emphasized on Tuesday the need to elect a consensus president, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Lebanon has been without a president since October 2022, the end of former president Michel Aoun’s term. Several electoral sessions, the last of which was held in June 2023, have failed to elect a president. At the end of November, the speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri, scheduled a new electoral session for Jan. 9.

"There is no greater danger for Lebanon than sectarian division," warned the mufti in a letter addressed to the Lebanese people on the occasion of the New Year. "Only national agreements save Lebanon, and national interest opposes what Washington wants ... Beware a compromise that excludes significant Sunni representation."

He said that his presidential candidate is consensus and that "any compromise that places us in the center of an international political occupation" will not be accepted.

"As we approach the end of 2024, Lebanon is still crucified on the scene of acute divisions, caught in a complex destiny," stated mufti Qabalan. "We adhere to coexistence and constitutional consensus. We are against political and sectarian isolation; we support Arab-Islamic partnership ... We will not accept offering Lebanon as a gift to anyone, America does not wish well for Lebanon and Europe treats Lebanon as a dumping ground for crises."

He also said that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey should "initiate a major settlement that defuses crises in the region."

"National decision, the army, the people, and resistance are a sovereign necessity for Lebanon," he stated.