Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: I Am the One Who Sponsors Dialogue to Elect New Lebanese President

Speaker Nabih Berri meets with the National Moderation bloc on Saturday. (Parliament)
Speaker Nabih Berri meets with the National Moderation bloc on Saturday. (Parliament)
TT

Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: I Am the One Who Sponsors Dialogue to Elect New Lebanese President

Speaker Nabih Berri meets with the National Moderation bloc on Saturday. (Parliament)
Speaker Nabih Berri meets with the National Moderation bloc on Saturday. (Parliament)

Lebanon’s parliament Speaker Nabih Berri put an end to the debate about who calls for and moderates dialogue in line with the initiative launched by the National Moderation bloc.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Berri said: “The General Secretariat of the parliament is the side that calls parliamentary blocs to take part in dialogue that will be headed by me personally without preconditions.”

“Perhaps meeting at a roundtable will lead to an agreement over a certain candidate, who could be eventually elected president, because the extraordinary conditions Lebanon is going through demand that we end the vacuum in the presidency,” he added.

Lebanon has been without a president since October 2022 when the term of Michel Aoun ended without the election of a successor. Bickering between the political blocs over a suitable candidate has thwarted the polls.

The National Moderation bloc has proposed holding a consultative session at parliament with the aim of agreeing on a presidential candidate and securing the needed two-thirds quorum at parliament at successive elections sessions that would be called for by Berri. The speaker would in turn vow to the bloc to call for the elections.

The bloc has been holding a series of meetings with other blocs to reach an agreement on the mechanism to launch the dialogue, focusing on who will make the invitation for the talks and who will moderate them. The bloc has also demanded that the participants not make any preconditions over the dialogue.

The National Moderation bloc met with Berri on Saturday.

Parliamentary sources from the bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat that it was not surprised with the speaker’s insistence on moderating the dialogue since he is the official who sets the mechanism for launching it.

He underlined his position to the bloc, they added.



Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
TT

Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar sl-Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.

Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family's decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall.

“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.”

He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.”

Iran and its armed proxies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.

Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that Tehran did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.