Efforts underway for president to be elected on January 9

Political parties in Lebanon are working to agree on two or three presidential candidates ahead of a presidential vote session scheduled for next week, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa told Al-Jadeed on Friday.

Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, with neither of the two main blocs -- Hezbollah and its opponents -- having the majority required to elect one, and unable to reach a consensus.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called for parliament to convene on January 9 to elect a president, in an attempt to break a gridlock of over two years and reactivate the country's crippled state institutions.

The five-nation group on Lebanon, which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, has been working for months to facilitate the election of a president.

"The five-member group is pushing for a president to be elected on January 9," Moussa told al-Jadeed. He said the ambassadors' last meeting with Berri was very positive and that Berri has vowed that the voting session will be open with successive rounds until a president is elected.

"Berri told us he is seeking to reach a consensus president who would support United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701," Moussa said.

Resolution 1701 intends to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces would fully withdraw while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — Hezbollah excluded — would be the exclusive armed presence south of Lebanon’s Litani River.

the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted for the resolution in 2006 to end a bruising monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah and pave the way for lasting security along the border. But while there was relative calm for nearly two decades, Resolution 1701's terms were never fully enforced.

The resolution was again on the table as part of a U.S.-French brokered ceasefire deal that ended, in late November, 13 months of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah. The clashes had escalated in September into an all-out war.