Prof Chibli Mallat was invited by German ambassador Andreas Kindl to a working lunch today, which was attended by Swiss Ambassador Dr Marion Weichelt, Italian Ambassador Nicoletta Bombardiere, and Belgian Ambassador Koen Vervaeke. Discussion revolved around the presidency in the light of the persistent deadlock, and on Mallat’s vision on the future of Lebanon-European ties.
On the former, Mallat explained that a president requires both constitutionally and politically the assent to his or her person of Hizbullah and the Lebanese Forces, and that he has advocated for both parties to consider new ideas that transcend the dominant disagreement. On eventual first measures a president should take, Mallat explained that, contrary to some arrangements being considered by France and other governments who care for the country, a ‘binome’ president/prime minister is unconstitutional and untrustworthy. The president does not decide who the PM is, it is Parliament that does.
Politically, there is no trust that the binome succeeds better than the arrangement made in 2016. Mallat explained that a president will find it difficult to inspire confidence if if he or she started a tenure that lacked the convergence of both Sayyed Nasrallah and Dr Geagea on the person, and that the support of HE Walid Jumblatt to persons who bridge this gap was and remains correct. The first and most important step is to form a strong, wide-ranging government, and that he hopes that the new PM will share his preference for a cabinet with at least as many women ministers as men.
On European-Lebanese ties, he suggested a more intense appreciation of the future of these relations to be at least as important as the Middle Eastern and Arab deep ties that Lebanon has developed.
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