Mikati: Foreign nations will name Lebanon’s new president

During a Wednesday meeting with a delegation from the Press Editors Syndicate, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati revealed that several foreign countries are “ working on a solution for the Lebanese presidential crisis.

“Yes, according to foreign information, there is something that is being prepared to resolve the crisis”,

He added “but things need time,”

In other word the foreign countries will tell the Lebanese who their new president will be.

The Lebanese people elected the 128 member parliament to meet and elect a new president

Lebanon’s polarised parliament failed for the 10th time  last Thursday to elect a new president, leaving the country with a political void in the middle of an unprecedented economic meltdown.

The country has been without a president since Michel Aoun’s six-year mandate ended in October, while Mikati heads a caretaker government because political divisions have prevented the creation of a new cabinet since a general election in May.

The parliament is strongly divided between Hezbollah and its allies and their opponents, which has prevented agreement on a consensus presidential candidate.

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed heavily armed militia and a political party.

Michel Moawad, an MP whose candidacy is opposed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, received 38 votes in the latest attempt to elect a president, while 37 MPs cast blank ballots and six others wasted their ballots

Candidates for president must win a two-thirds majority from the 128-seat parliament in the first round of voting. Failing that, they require an absolute majority in the following rounds.

But the two-thirds quorum required for the parliament to convene was lost after the pro-Hezbollah MPs left chamber — a tactic they have used repeatedly since the first electoral session in September — and the session was adjourned by their ally Speaker Nabih Berri.

Thursday’s session was parliament’s final meeting of the year. Berri did not announce a date for the next electoral session.

” Despite the fact that Lebanon gained its independence nearly 80 years ago we are still dependent on the same countries that occupied us for decades “. Analyst Sami Haddad told Ya Libnan

In other words don’t expect a “Made in Lebanon” president, he added