Lebanese politicians had on Wednesday mixed reactions to a historic accord struck a day earlier by Iran, the United States, and five other world powers to check Tehran's nuclear efforts short of building a bomb.
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said the deal could have a positive impact on Lebanon's presidential elections. But stressed that granting Christians their rights cannot be influenced by any change in the world.
Full StoryItalian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who is on an official visit to Beirut, has expressed concern over the presidential crisis in Lebanon.
“A commitment to elect a president concerns all the Lebanese,” Gentiloni told An Nahar daily in an interview published on Tuesday.
Full StoryMarada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh denied on Friday he was engaged in a row with the Free Patriotic Movement, but said he had different viewpoints with it on several issues, including a proposal to have a federal system.
“We don't have differences with the FPM,” Franjieh said at a press conference he held in Bnashii.
Full StoryThe Free Patriotic Movement is ready to topple the country's political system in an attempt to survive and could resort to the option of bringing down the cabinet, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has said.
“We are ready to abandon the system,” Bassil said, adding the FPM's rivals “are neither implementing it nor accepting us to be part of it.”
Full StoryA Lebanese polling and research firm has been tasked with carrying out a survey proposed by the Free Patriotic Movement to help ease the presidential deadlock, al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Monday.
Sources told the daily that Statistics Lebanon, which was established in 1994, will ask a sample of 4,600 Christians who their candidate for the presidency is.
Full StoryPrime Minister Tammam Salam has expressed concern over Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's threats to mobilize his supporters, saying his move is putting Lebanon's coexistence in danger.
Salam's concern comes despite Speaker Nabih Berri being more optimistic.
Full StoryChange and Reform bloc secretary MP Ibrahim Kanaan held talks Monday with the main Christian parties in a bid to clinch their support for Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun's proposal on carrying out a survey to determine which Christian party or parties are influential in the country.
Following a meeting with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab, Kanaan said the LF chief reiterated to him “his support for organizing the survey.”
Full StoryMaronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged the rival March 8 and 14 alliances on Thursday to officially announce the name of their presidential candidates and elect a new head of state.
“It is a shame that the presidential vacuum crossed the one-year mark,” al-Rahi told a delegation from the Maronite League that visited him in Bkirki.
Full StoryThe head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, Francois Bassil, has said the ABL will participate in a conference organized by the Economic Committees on Thursday to shed light on the severe repercussions of the political crisis on the country's economy.
Bassil told An Nahar daily published Wednesday that although the banking sector is functioning properly, the ABL will take part in the conference that will be held in BIEL.
Full StoryPrime Minister Tammam Salam is setting the agenda of a cabinet session that he intends to chair next week following an agreement with Speaker Nabih Berri, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper said that Salam's move comes amid the launching of consultations to hold an extraordinary parliamentary session.
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