True||The election of a president is the key to political stability in Lebanon, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Tuesday, in his latest call on rival factions to end the 12-month-old presidential vacuum that has paralyzed Parliament legislation and is threatening to cripple the government’s work.||

BEIRUT: The election of a president is the key to political stability in Lebanon, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Tuesday, in his latest call on rival factions to end the 12-month-old presidential vacuum that has paralyzed Parliament legislation and is threatening to cripple the government’s work.

“If stable security is the first condition to ensure a favorable economic climate, the second essential condition is political stability, which unfortunately is still unattainable,” Salam said in a speech at the opening of the annual Arab Economic Forum at a hotel in Beirut.

“We have said and we still repeat with a loud voice that there can be no stability or healthy political life without a president. The government is not and will not be an alternative to a president at Baabda Palace who fully exercises his constitutional powers,” he said.

Salam added that the “killing vacuum” in the country’s top Christian post was weakening the government’s productivity and its ability to face the country’s huge demands at all levels, in addition to obstructing Parliament’s legislation.

“Elections should be held on time and constitutional institutions must renew themselves and do their jobs in accordance with the mechanism of our democratic parliamentary system as stipulated by the Constitution.”

Parliament last month failed in the 22nd abortive attempt since April last year to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year mandate ended on May 25, over a lack of quorum. Speaker Nabih Berri has set a new electoral session for May 13.

Similarly, amid a threatened boycott of legislative sessions by the three leading Christian parties – the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party – in the absence of a president, Berri is striving to convene Parliament to act on a raft of pending draft laws in line of what politicians have termed “necessary legislation.”

Parliament last convened for a legislative session on Nov. 5, when lawmakers voted to extend their terms by more than two-and-a-half years.

Salam said that despite the political rifts among the rival factions over key issues, such as the election of a president and Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria, his government has succeeded in ensuring an “acceptable degree of stability that protected civil peace and prevented the country from drifting into security incidents.”

“This has been achieved as a result of the ongoing dialogue among political parties and the common will toward shielding Lebanon from the contagion of horrible chaos in neighboring countries,” Salam said, referring to the ongoing dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah, and between the two Christian rival groups, the FPM and the LF.

He credited the current stability in Lebanon to the Army and security forces who, he said, have been deployed on the rugged outskirts of Lebanon’s eastern mountain range near the border with Syria, as well as in the northern city of Tripoli, Beirut’s southern suburbs and in the south. “We affirm that harming national security is forbidden,” Salam said.

For his part, Berri warned that the monthslong paralysis of Parliament legislation threatens Lebanon’s security. “The most serious thing about closing the door on legislation, besides its political and constitutional dimensions, is getting closer to red lines related to Lebanon’s national security and strengthening its stability,” Berri said in remarks published by As-Safir daily Tuesday.

An example of that, he said, was a draft law concerning immunity of French officers who will train the Lebanese Army on new weapons funded by the $3 billion Saudi grant for Lebanon. “France has informed Lebanon that without approval of that law, it would be impossible for it to send trainers,” Berri said.

The parliamentary Future bloc rejected Hezbollah’s accusations that the Future Movement was violating the Constitution and blocking the presidential election.

“The Lebanese follow through the media outlets those who are attending Parliament sessions to elect a president and those who are boycotting them, and subsequently, those who are obstructing the presidential election, particularly the Loyalty to the Resistance [Hezbollah] bloc and the Change and Reform bloc,” the bloc said after its weekly meeting chaired by former premier Fouad Siniora.

Lawmakers from MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, Hezbollah’s bloc and its March 8 allies have been blamed for thwarting a quorum with their consistent boycott of Parliament sessions to elect a president. They have demanded an agreement beforehand with their March 14 rivals over a consensus candidate for the presidency.

The Future bloc held Hezbollah responsible for the repercussions on Lebanon of its participation in the fighting against Islamist militants in Syria’s Qalamoun region.

It renewed its call for the deployment of the Lebanese Army, backed by the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, along the northern and eastern border with Syria to protect against possible militant attacks.

Despite its harsh criticism of Hezbollah’s actions, the Future bloc underlined the need to “continue a frank and calm dialogue” with the party in the hope of achieving the main goal behind it which is “to end the presidential vacuum and elect a consensual president, and also reduce tensions in Lebanon and protect it from the turmoil in the region.”

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag stressed the importance of electing a president almost one year into the presidential vacancy.

“We of course also looked at the importance [of] the role the presidency plays in achieving all the goals that Lebanon has set for itself and its population,” Kaag said in a statement after meeting Information Minister Ramzi Joreige.

She also highlighted the importance of safeguarding “Lebanon’s security, stability and stabilization at a time when the region is in deep protracted crisis and when Lebanon is also bearing a significant impact of this crisis.”

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