(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The international community expressed disappointment in Lebanon’s inability to elect a president on Wednesday, urging leaders to quickly end the presidential vacuum that has left the country’s top Christian post empty, U.N. Special Coordinator to Lebanon Derek Plumbly said.
“We call on Lebanon’s leaders and Members of Parliament to engage intensively to ensure the election of a president without further delay,” Plumbly told reporters after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Rai in Bkirki. “Lebanon’s long standing democratic tradition and the challenges the country presently faces mean that this is indeed a matter of great importance to us all.”
U.S. Ambassador David Hale, Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin, Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon Jiang Jiang, U.K. Ambassador Tom Fletcher, the French Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires Jerome Kochhar and U.N. Special Coordinator to Lebanon Derek Plumbly attended the meeting. Plumbly said the patriarch told international ambassadors that he was “concerned” over the parliament’s continued inability to elect a leader.
“We share that concern,” he said. “The process of selecting a new president must remain a Lebanese one. At a time of conflict and instability in other parts of the region, and when Lebanon itself faces multiple economic, humanitarian and security challenges, a prolonged vacuum in the highest office of the Lebanese state would indeed be a matter of grave concern.”
The meeting with international leaders come after Rai held seperate meetings with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea.
Since April, lawmakers have been unable to elect a new head of state. An eighth round is now scheduled for July 2.