The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, affirmed through "An-Nahar" that "the atmosphere from the five-nation meeting, which included Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France, and the United States, indicates that the time has come to move to a third candidate after a year has passed since the presidential elections, during which the concerned parties have tried their luck with one or more candidates. The team supporting Suleiman Frangieh exerted all their weight in the June 14 session with 51 votes, compared to the team supporting Jihad Azour, which secured 59 votes. This game indicated that it was time to switch to a third candidate who could potentially break through some communications that could be made with certain parties to reach a name that could form a consensus among the majority of parties to elect him as president of the republic."
Geagea clarified that "this is what led me to say that there is a new development that could positively move the situation, but what happened is that the 'Resistance' team completely rejected this proposal. We noticed a statement from one of the ministers of 'the Resistance' who referred to the beginning of a transition to a third phase titled presidential elections between Suleiman Frangieh and Joseph Aoun, as if this axis is not concerned with the end of the first phase, and only the opposition is concerned, knowing that we certainly are not concerned if they are also not concerned." He added that "the crux of the matter lies in the fact that what happened revealed the extent of the deception and lies of the 'Resistance' team after a year of calling for dialogue, which was a general and vague proposal in the first phase before it evolved into the necessity of discussing the presidency in the second phase. When Le Drian arrived and indicated the end of the current phase and the necessity of searching for a third candidate, the 'Resistance' axis reacted strongly. Therefore, unfortunately, we still find ourselves at the same point because the 'Resistance' team rejected giving up on Frangieh's candidacy while simultaneously lacking the power to elect him."
Geagea pointed out that "everything we heard in the farcical proposal called dialogue is now clear: the 'Resistance' axis merely aims to buy time and pull the rug from under the five-nation committee that was genuinely seeking to arrive at an initiative related to dialogue, but the 'Resistance' axis once again thwarted it. Consequently, we have returned to the starting point due to the 'Resistance' axis's insistence on its candidate and the absence of the will to consider any third candidate."
Geagea shed light on "the fact that we have not missed an opportunity to try and find a way to conduct presidential elections, with the latest attempt being the transition from Michel Moawad to Jihad Azour. We did not act in the same manner as the 'Resistance' axis, which maintained a sole candidate, but rather chose another candidate, Jihad Azour, who was able to secure 59 votes. We will continue to accumulate votes for him, especially from around 20 additional deputies who fall in the middle, in order to achieve around 65 votes."
He concluded that "this is the only thing that can be done, away from accommodating the 'Resistance' axis by adopting its candidate or continuing the game of stalemate. It is essential for the deputies who stood in the middle last time to help us emerge from this state of obstruction, as there is no solution other than either Jihad Azour or Suleiman Frangieh, and there is no third solution because the 'Resistance' has rejected discussing a third solution."
