The party’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, had said in November that he wanted any chosen president to be “not subject to the United States” and “reassured by the resistance,” while his deputies were voting with white papers during the president’s election sessions.
On Monday, the United States urged the Lebanese parliament to elect a president, six months after the first position was vacant in a country mired in political stalemate and a severe economic crisis.
“The United States calls on political leaders in Lebanon to move urgently to elect a president to unify the country and to adopt urgently needed reforms to save the economy from its crisis,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller in a statement. “Lebanon’s leaders should not place their personal interests and aspirations above the interests of their country and people,” he added.
A caretaker government with limited powers has been running the country since May last year, following parliamentary elections that did not produce a clear majority for any party.
Since the end of President Michel Aoun’s term at the end of October, the Lebanese parliament has failed 11 times to elect a successor due to deep political divisions. Hezbollah, which enjoys dominance over political life in Lebanon, announced its support with its allies for the accession of former deputy and minister Suleiman Franjieh, who is close to Syria, to the presidency in Lebanon.
The party’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, had said in November that he wanted any chosen president to be “not subject to the United States” and “reassured by the resistance,” while his deputies were voting with white papers during the president’s election sessions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian called last week, during his visit to Lebanon, to “accelerate the election of a president and complete the political process in this important country in the region.”
Representatives of five countries concerned with Lebanese affairs, including France, the United States and Saudi Arabia, held a meeting in Paris in February to discuss the situation in Lebanon, without achieving any progress.
In the statement, Miller expressed “the United States’ belief that Lebanon needs a president who is free from corruption and capable of uniting the country (…) and implementing basic economic reforms, on top of which are those required to secure an agreement on a program with the International Monetary Fund.”
Miller stressed in the statement that “solutions to Lebanon’s political and economic crises can only come from within Lebanon, not the international community.”
Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic crisis since the financial collapse of 2019, in light of a deep political impasse.
