BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Monday urged the rival political parties to elect a new president in order to safeguard Lebanon from the consequences of regional crises.
“ Lebanon has to protect itself,” he said, adding that lawmakers “must elect a president and stop disrupting state institutions.”
MPs have botched several attempts since April to elect a new head of state to replace former President Michel Sleiman, whose term ended May 25.
“ Lebanon is one big family,” he told a delegation of Lebanon’s Mukhtars Association during a meeting at his residence in Ain al-Tineh.
He hailed the Lebanese people as the “prime guarantors” of government institutions.
He also paid tribute to the Lebanese people who support the tripartite equation “the Army, the people and the resistance.”
Berri warned that Iraq’s sectarian divide threatens to redraw the borders of the region.