Franjieh Holds Talks with al-Rahi in Diman

Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh held talks Monday evening in Diman with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, state-run National News Agency reported.

Franjieh was accompanied by his wife Rima and the priest Estephan Franjieh, NNA said.

Talks tackled “the various developments in the Lebanese arena” and the patriarch threw a dinner banquet in Franjieh's honor after which a one-hour closed-door meeting was held between the two men, the agency added.

The closed-door meeting touched on “the local developments, especially the issue of the presidential vacuum,” NNA said.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.