South Lebanon

The “Five-Year Committee”, which includes representatives of the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, seeks to help Lebanon resolve the intractable crisis.

Media sources accompanying the movement of the committee, which is working hard at the present time to bring viewpoints closer, told the Sky News Arabia website that the ambassadors of the member states of the committee are seeking special attention from the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, to speed up the election of a president for the country who will keep pace with the stage, and ambassadors will meet him. Others are interested in this, at a time when Hezbollah remains one of the main obstructionists in the election of the president to this day, according to the sources.

So where is the Lebanese presidency file? What are the most prominent obstacles?

Melhem Khalaf, a member of the Lebanese Parliament and former head of the Bar Association, told Sky News Arabia: “When the presidency is vacant, the Lebanese constitution places direct and personal responsibility on 128 representatives for their immediate and arbitrary call to elect a president for the country, in order to spare the state from a vacuum of any authority, in accordance with a constitutional principle.” “Is fundamental to controlling the democratic system, which is the principle of continuity of power.”

Khalaf continues: “However, for more than a year and 3 months, representatives have been reluctant to implement the duty imposed on them to come to the council to elect the president, and this obligatory attendance is not linked to any prior invitation, as every representative must attend immediately and by law to the council to elect a president.” “The country.”

He added: “It is a direct responsibility that falls on the representatives, and it is not possible to cover up this responsibility by not calling for the session, nor to use non-attendance as an excuse as a right. Since the end of the former president’s term, the Council has become a ruling session to elect the president. Otherwise, it is contrary to the principle of continuity of power and a justification for the failure of non-election.” And blatant violation of the provisions of the Constitution.”

The representative describes what is happening as “a coup against the republic, against democracy, against self-evident legal concepts, against the constitution, against the rule of law, and against living together. It is a coup with the consent of a traditional political class whose only concern is sharing the spoils.”

Khalaf adds: “The war on the country’s borders has begun to expand with the enemy’s clear intention to lure us into a war that we cannot afford, which makes it necessary for these traditional forces to carry out their duty by electing the head of state in order to fortify the home front.”

The crisis of the south

In a related context, writer and political analyst Munir Al-Rabie told Sky News Arabia, “The presidential file has become linked, in one way or another, by virtue of a realistic view, to developments in the situation in the south of the country and developments in Gaza.”

Al-Rabie adds: “All Lebanese files have become interconnected with each other, whether the border demarcation negotiations or the truce negotiations led by the American special envoy Amos Hockstein, who stresses the necessity of holding presidential elections in the next stage so that the reconstituted authority in Lebanon is supervising the process of demarcating the borders and arranging The situation in southern Lebanon.

The political analyst confirms: “In this context comes the movement of the ambassadors of the five countries to re-search for unifying visions to reach a specific and unified agreement on the specifications of the president, the concerns of the next stage, the specifications of the government as well, and the programs that will be worked on.”

He believes that “this matter may also be related to preparing to hold a five-year meeting at the level of delegates to approve these recommendations or conclusions, and then move towards the Lebanese to inform them of this.”

Al-Rabie concludes: “The matter will be linked to the ongoing negotiations to calm the situation in southern Lebanon, and any proposed settlement must restore balance to Lebanon at the level of political authority, because it is not possible to bring in an authority that establishes the dominance of one party over another in light of everything that is happening.”

When is the president elected?

Lebanese political analyst Johnny Mounir told Sky News Arabia: “The movement is back active in this context after the border war froze any movement aimed at electing the president of the Republic of Lebanon.”

Munir believes that “the five-member committee’s move has begun to crystallize the picture in preparation for the post-Gaza war phase, and therefore we are still facing two basic problems, related to the issue of the political settlement in Israel and the great tension between its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States, which in turn is pressing to dismiss the Israeli government before the beginning of next March.” “.

He added: “As a result, movements began in the region, especially Lebanon.”

Regarding the time period for the end of the Gaza war and the resolution of the presidential problem in Lebanon, Mounir says: “If things change before next spring and the current Israeli government departs and is replaced by a government devoid of the right, Lebanon will see the light in the spring.”

2024-01-27 18:06:42
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