Representative Ehab Matar pointed out that “Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is committed to electing a president before next June 15, and this is directly related to the governance of the Banque du Liban, and he is very keen that the election of the next ruler be with the presence of a president of the republic.”
And he stressed, in a radio interview, that “Berry is committed to the leader of the “Marada” movement, Suleiman Franjieh, and there is no alternative to him. On the other hand, I told him that I still adhere to Representative Michel Moawad, despite the decline in his fortunes from the previous stage, but until today there is no candidate for him. There is a consensus on the part of the opposition, and I do not know in which category we can place the “Free Patriotic Movement”, as it is the most opposed to Franjieh, and on the other hand, it does not present any other candidate.
Matar called, “the two largest Christian groups to nominate an alternative candidate for Franjieh, and for the democratic game to take its course, but we cannot keep the country in a presidential vacuum for several years, and if they have a serious candidate, they will fight the battle.”
Regarding the recent meetings of the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, he stressed that “what is remarkable about the current Saudi movement is that it included the meeting with the candidate Franjieh. In the past, we did not see such meetings during the ambassador’s tours. Rather, we saw an almost lack of communication between the Saudi embassy and Bnashi. But we have seen Today, in direct communication, it coincided with a change in the regional track, and today we see some breakthroughs regarding the relationship between Syria and the League of Arab States, led by Saudi Arabia.
He also saw that “Bukhari succeeded in restoring the entitlement to the presidency of the republic to the Lebanese interior, and he says it explicitly, we are not concerned with naming anyone, and we are not concerned with the exception of anyone, and what we say is that this issue is Lebanese, so that there is no “veto” on any personality, including Franjieh, but this does not mean He is supportive of Franjieh,” noting that “the best evidence is that the next day there was a visit to Moawad, and on the same day to the army commander, Joseph Aoun. Therefore, there is communication with more than one candidate for the presidency of the republic and with all parties, and I do not see any bias towards the Saudi side for any candidate.” .
Matar pointed out, “The talk is that there will not be a long period of time to reach the next president, and if the president is not elected, there is a possibility of resorting to sanctions by Arab and European countries against Lebanon.” He found that “the opposition has begun to lose since it put forward Plan B,” and this diminished Moawad’s fortunes. Therefore, if there is no serious candidacy for a candidate facing Franjieh’s candidacy, this means that the opposition’s position is very weak.
