2023-06-02 09:00:34
Lara Yazbek wrote in Markazia:
The presidential campaign was put on a hot fire internationally. After an understanding is reached about a serious presidential candidate among the forces opposing the candidate of the March 8 team, the head of the Marada Movement, Suleiman Franjieh, which is imminent and very imminent, according to what diplomatic sources say to Al Markaziya, it seems that the external approach to the elections will take another turn, more Urgency and rigor.
This trend was not evidenced by the positions of the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, on Wednesday, when she announced that “US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering the possibility of imposing sanctions on Lebanese officials against the backdrop of not electing a president.” And she stressed, “We are working with the Europeans to push the Lebanese parliament to carry out its duty in electing a president for the country, considering that the possibility of the collapse of the state in Lebanon still exists until now.”
In parallel, the US House of Representatives, with its Democratic and Republican wings, renewed pressure for a stronger US intervention to break the Lebanese presidency. After a first letter sent by the House to Biden in this regard weeks ago, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, Michael McCaul, and Managing Director Gregory Meeks, sent a letter from the Democratic and Republican parties to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to express grave concern about the escalating political and economic crisis in Lebanon. The letter stated: Parliament must overcome months of incompatibility to urgently elect a new president free of corruption and illegitimate external influences. A way out of this crisis will also require a president committed to preserving state power, including the guarantees enshrined in Lebanon’s constitution, and pursuing long overdue reforms, particularly critical economic reforms imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The United States and its European partners must reiterate with one voice the need for parliament to elect such a president and advance these vital economic reforms. We also call on the US administration to use all available powers, including imposing additional sanctions on specific individuals who contribute to corruption and impede progress in the country, to make clear to Lebanon’s political class that the current situation is unacceptable.
And at a time when you expect that the next five-year meeting, expected within days in Riyadh, will adopt the same tone, so that everyone in Lebanon will be informed that there is no justification for keeping the doors of Parliament closed after today, and that the democratic competitive game must take its course and whoever wins wins, it indicates that contacts will take place. With Tehran to push it to persuade the Shiite duo to soften its position, because if it does not do so, the alternative will be harsh penalties for the unemployed, because the “Franjieh or vacuum” equation cannot continue, especially as the collapsed country is approaching a fateful entitlement regarding the end of the term of the Governor of the Banque du Liban. Riad Salameh next July.. Will this extremism benefit and break the negative stalemate and liberate the hijacked merit, or is the duo insisting on the challenge, regardless of the costs, sticking to the election of its candidate or none?
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