Agreement on the Presidency: What Jumblatt Announced from Ain al-Tineh

Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, visited the Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, in Ain al-Tineh. Following the meeting, Jumblatt stated, "Communication is ongoing with a friend and ally of history. We can finally congratulate President Berri on his efforts in the demarcation, which took nine years according to what he told me, but it bore fruit, and the circumstances were helpful, yet he was the one who initiated the file." Jumblatt emphasized that "the most important thing is to reach the presidential election, and to review names; our candidate is Michel Moawad, but we are not a single team in the country, rather several parties, so let’s discuss other names, and Michel could be one of them." He reminded that "we agreed that there should not be a candidate of challenge." He also pointed out that "Berri has not backed down from dialogue, but unfortunately, some parties rejected it, which is a mistake." Regarding the "Taif Forum" held yesterday and Hezbollah's absence from it, Jumblatt said, "I have no idea if this party was invited or not; the advantage of yesterday was that we recalled historical milestones, we were not tourists, and there was no provocation, rather acceptable conversation. However, conclusions can only be reached if there is a president capable of managing dialogue and raising issues that have not been addressed, such as administrative decentralization, abolishing sectarianism, and the Senate Council."