Vatican envoy, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, in fresh bid to end Presidential vacuum
Hussein Dakroub/Hasan Lakkis/The Daily May. 30, 2015
BEIRUT: A special envoy of Pope Francis arrived in Beirut Friday in the Vatican’s latest attempt to resolve a political crisis that has left Lebanon without a president for more than a year.
Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, the former foreign minister of the Holy See, met shortly after his arrival at the head of a Vatican delegation with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Bkirki to discuss the situation in Lebanon, particularly the yearlong presidential deadlock.
Mamberti is on a weeklong visit for talks with Lebanese officials on the conditions of Christians in Lebanon and the region and the work of Christian spiritual courts in Lebanon, the National News Agency reported.
In a statement at Beirut airport, Mamberti said he would meet a number of Lebanese political leaders to discuss internal Lebanese affairs, particularly the election of a president. “The presidency issue concerns all parties in Lebanon,” he said. He added that his visit gained “special significance” with regard to the conditions of Christians in Lebanon and the region.
Lebanon Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the presidential stalemate as Parliament has failed since April last year to elect a president over a lack of quorum. Speaker Nabih Berri has called for a new Parliament session next Wednesday to elect a president.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet is unlikely to make any decisions at its next meeting on security appointments and the situation on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, two contentious issues that could paralyze the government’s work, ministerial sources said.
The delayed Cabinet action on these two issues is apparently aimed at giving time for mediators to reach a compromise over the Army commander’s post, currently at the center of a heated debate as Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun staunchly opposes the extension of Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi’s term when it expires on Sept. 23.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam has called the Cabinet to meet Monday to continue discussion of the security appointments and how to deal with jihadis based on Arsal’s outskirts after it failed to act on these two topics during its session Thursday. While the sensitive issue of Arsal could be resolved, the dispute over the appointment of a new chief of the Internal Security Forces, replacing Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous, who retires on June 5, could threaten Cabinet stability, the sources said.
In a bid to break the deadlock over the Army Command post, efforts have been intensified to reach a compromise based on a proposal by MP Walid Jumblatt which calls for appointing Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, Aoun’s son-in-law, who heads the Army Commando Unit, as commander in exchange for the FPM leader dropping his candidacy for the presidency, the sources said.
In an interview with the electronic newspaper Al-Modon Friday, Jumblatt said he supported the appointment of Roukoz as Army commander if this step served the goal of maintaining stability and civil peace in the country. A number of FPM lawmakers said that the final decision to appoint a new Army commander, namely Roukoz, is in the hands of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, adding that the next few days will reveal how the head of the Future Movement will act.
The MPs stressed that a tradeoff between the Army Command and the presidency is not on Aoun’s agenda at all.
Salam’s forthcoming visit to Saudi Arabia Tuesday at the head of a delegation including Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, and Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, provides a good opportunity to discuss the issue of security and military appointments and other topics with Hariri and senior Saudi officials, they said.
Meanwhile, a delegation from Arsal’s notables and mayor led by Future MPs Jammal Jarrah and Ziad Qaderi met with Salam and Machnouk, amid calls by ministers from Aoun’s bloc and Hezbollah on the Army to take action to oust ISIS and Nusra Front militants entrenched on the town’s outskirts. “Yesterday, the Lebanese Army entered Arsal and was met with roses and rice. The residents were extremely happy with the Army being among them. Also, Syrian brothers in Arsal joined the joy of welcoming the Army,” Jarrah told reporters after meeting Salam at the Grand Serail. He rejected charges that Arsal is “a den of terror” beyond the state’s authority. “The Lebanese Army yesterday carried out a massive deployment in Arsal and set up patrols and checkpoints to prove to all skeptics that the state, with its Army and security forces, is present in Arsal and all its areas.”
