Berri urges new president as opposition rejects implicating Lebanon in war

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday called on the country’s political forces to elect a new president to confront the rapid developments in the region and Lebanon.

“In the face of what is happening in the region and the escalation of the Israeli aggression against Palestine, Gaza and Lebanon, we are before a chance to elect a president, so shall we seize it?” Berru said, as parliament convened to elect two secretaries, three commissioners and the members of the parliamentary committees.

The opposition meanwhile issued a statement calling for “protecting Lebanon and its people during one of the most dangerous crises that is facing the region and is on the verge of reaching the entire country.”

The opposition also lamented that some forces are “still rejecting the election of a president” and that the caretaker government “has openly admitted that the decisions of peace of war are not in its hands.”

And in an apparent jab at Iran, the opposition criticized “repeated statements by the officials of a regional country that wants to turn Lebanon into a conflict and confrontation arena to negotiate at its expense and at the expense of its people.”

Accordingly, the opposition said it categorically rejects “dragging Lebanon into a war whose price will be very costly for Lebanon, which has paid dearly and is still paying for the sake of the Palestinian cause, but rejects to be fuel for the fire of the interests of another country.”