BEIRUT: Lebanon’s presidential deadlock was at the center of talks in Rome between Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai and the Director of the Middle East and North Africa at the French Foreign Ministry Jean Francois Girault, the state-run National News Agency reported Monday.
The Rai-Girault talks that lasted for a little bit more than two hours come as part of efforts by France to solve Lebanon’s presidential crisis. Girault visited Lebanon last week and met key political figures in a bid to put an end to the presidential vacuum. Lebanon has been without a president since May 25, 2014, when the tenure of former President Michel Sleiman ended.