Hussein Dakroub|

BEIRUT: Next month’s Parliament session to elect a president is doomed to fail over lack of a quorum like the previous 34, Speaker Nabih Berri said Sunday, casting gloom over rival initiatives backing candidates from the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition for the country’s top Christian post.

“The Feb. 8 session to elect a president will not be different from previous ones with regard to its mechanism. If a legal quorum is secured, the session will be held. If a quorum is not secured, the session will be postponed to another date,” Berri was quoted as saying by visitors at his Ain al-Tineh residence.

Based on current developments concerning attempts to end the 20-month-long presidential stalemate, Berri said he ruled out the possibility of electing a president on Feb. 8, even though contacts and consultations among various blocs would continue until that date.

He lamented that while regional powers were busy with their own problems, rival Lebanese factions did not seize the opportunity to elect a president. “There is still a chance [to elect a president], but it has been put on hold due to the continued internal differences over the presidential election.”

His remarks come as Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has endorsed MP Michel Aoun’s presidential candidacy against MP Sleiman Frangieh’s bid, which is supported by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Despite Geagea’s endorsement for Aoun, Hariri is standing firm on his support for Frangieh’s bid.

Aoun held an ice-breaking phone conversation with Hariri Saturday in a gesture apparently aimed at enlisting the Future Movement leader’s support for his candidacy.

However, “Hariri reminded [Aoun] of the initiatives that he launched, the last being with MP Sleiman Frangieh, stressing the need to attend Parliament sessions to end the presidential vacancy,” according to a statement released by Hariri’s office.

Hariri reiterated the Future Movement’s support for the “reconciliation” between the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement that took place at Geagea’s residence in Maarab last week during which the LF chief announced his support for Aoun.

In a sign of continued support for Frangieh, Hariri later contacted the Marada Movement leader following Aoun’s call. “They discussed the latest contacts and the ongoing efforts to end the presidential vacancy and reactivate the work of the state and its institutions,” the statement said.

Berri discounted the possibility that Hezbollah would exert pressure on its March 8 allies to vote for Aoun. Commenting on Geagea’s call on Hezbollah to bring pressure to bear on March 8 allies to vote for Aoun and on Frangieh to withdraw from the presidency race, Berri was quoted as saying: “What is Hezbollah required to do? Do they want to put a gun, a rifle or a rocket at the heads of Saad Hariri, Walid Jumblatt, Sleiman Frangieh and Nabih Berri to make them elect a certain candidate? Things cannot go that way. The relationship between us as allies does not go this way.” Asked if Hezbollah can pressure Frangieh into withdrawing from the race in favor of Aoun, Berri said: “Why should Frangieh accept to withdraw since he is the strongest candidate so far.”

The speaker reiterated his position that the Aoun-Geagea reconciliation in Maarab would not help put an end to the presidential vacuum.

“The Maarab meeting constituted a qualitative move toward inter-Christian reconciliation, but it will not change much in the presidential predicament,” he said. He added that he advised Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab when they visited him to seek his support for Aoun’s candidacy to meet with Frangieh and reach an agreement.

A senior Kataeb Party official also ruled out the election of a president at the Feb. 8 session.

“Since Aoun was reported to have said that he will not go to Parliament before being assured of unanimous support of lawmakers, the Feb. 8 session is destined to fail,” former Minister Salim al-Sayegh, deputy head of the Kataeb Party, told The Daily Star.

He said his party was still waiting for answers from both Aoun and Frangieh to questions relating to crucial issues such as commitment to the Constitution, how the presidential candidate would deal with regional issues, Lebanon’s sovereignty and neutrality toward regional conflicts.

“So far, there are no dynamic signs from the architects of the presidential initiatives: Hariri and Geagea, in order to make a breakthrough in the presidential deadlock,” Sayegh said. “The two leaders are required to answer the party’s questions on the candidate’s commitment to dealing with important issues, such as abidance by the Constitution.”

Although Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel said Friday the party would not back any candidate with a “March 8 platform” for the presidency, in what amounted to an implicit rejection of Aoun and Frangieh’s bids, Sayegh said: “The Kataeb position does neither support, nor reject in the absolute sense Aoun and Frangieh’s candidacies.”

While Aoun can count on the support of Hezbollah and the LF, Frangieh has the backing of the Future Movement, Berri’s Amal Movement and most likely MP Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party. Effectively, either camp can scuttle the Feb. 8 session to elect a president by boycotting it. Parliament requires a quorum of two-thirds of its 128 members to convene.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said that the upcoming Cabinet session’s agenda would not include any divisive issues. The agenda includes 379 items. Salam has called for a new Cabinet session for Thursday despite an ongoing row among ministers over military appointments and the body’s decision-making system in the absence of a president.

FPM and Hezbollah ministers boycotted a Cabinet session on Jan. 14 because the issue of military and security appointments, a key FPM demand, was not on the agenda. The Jan. 14 session was the first to be held since September, excluding an emergency meeting held last month over the trash crisis.

The FPM signaled it would boycott the next session too over the appointments issue. “Our demand to participate in the Cabinet is known concerning the approval of security appointments. We will take a stance based on the parties’ commitment to this issue,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the FPM told LBCI channel Sunday.