Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is experiencing his "finest days" as he travels between Arab capitals, ruling over state affairs while the Aounist mandate lies buried under the weight of the presidential vacancy. He conducts presidential meetings and takes center stage in the official Lebanese scene abroad alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, leaving behind a sense of longing in Gebran Bassil's heart as he complains to the French ambassador in Beirut, Anne Grillo, about his difficulty in digesting the current governmental situation during a well-noted "gossip" session against Mikati's government that will neither advance nor delay French calculations.
While Bassil focuses his efforts on inciting against the caretaker government, both in front of the French ambassador and during a meeting of his parliamentary bloc, he remains silent about his pivotal role in obstructing the presidential election and prolonging the vacancy in the presidency by confirming his intention to proceed with the game of "blank votes" in the ballot box tomorrow. In the meantime, President Macron reviews with Mikati, on the sidelines of the "COP27" conference, the French endeavors to address the Lebanese situation, emphasizing the "priority of holding the Lebanese presidential elections for the regular functioning of institutions."
Sources monitoring the French efforts in this regard revealed that Paris "does not accept standing idly by in the face of the presidential deadlock and has begun intensifying its communications with influential Lebanese parties to explore various ideas and proposals that could help expedite the presidential elections." The sources clarified to "Nidaa Al-Watan" that there is currently "no specific French initiative regarding the presidential crisis, but there are pressing movements involving various concerned parties to prevent Lebanon from entering dangerous maze leading to uncertainty if the presidential vacuum continues for an extended period."
They pointed out that "the French are closely following Lebanese developments, and while they are keen that the process of electing the president remains purely Lebanese since it is an internal Lebanese requirement to be accomplished by the parliament, they are simultaneously working through their open channels of communication with different Lebanese political components to gauge opinions regarding a list of presidential candidates that align with the required rescue specifications, ensuring internal Lebanese consensus and not conflicting with the aspirations of the Arab community, particularly Saudi Arabia’s perspective on the requirements of reform and combating corruption in Lebanon."
In this context, the sources revealed that "following the recent French-Saudi-American meeting in Paris, and based on the discussions that took place during the earlier French-Saudi bilateral meetings concerning the Lebanese dossier, Paris began proposing a list of names capable of securing Lebanese-international-Arab intersections to assume the presidency in the next phase, including Army Commander General Joseph Aoun and former minister Ziad Baroud, in addition to the name of a former northern minister who is considered neutral and is classified as one of the active figures in the revolutionary groups." However, the sources confirmed that matters in this context have not yet progressed beyond the "pulse-checking" stage, waiting for a clearer picture to emerge regarding the communications and consultations along the Paris-Beirut axis.
