Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his rejection of imposing any “preconditions” on any presidential candidate or the president-elect, as he urged the parliamentary blocs to “clearly announce” their stances on the nominations.
“Despite their importance, the topics that were raised at national dialogue or in bilateral meetings cannot become an obligatory gateway for the election of a president and cannot be imposed as preconditions on the candidates or the president-elect, seeing as that would violate the text and the spirit of the Constitution,” al-Rahi cautioned in the Sunday mass sermon.
“The process of raising and addressing these topics in parliament and cabinet must be left to the president, and this president must be wise, shrewd and knowledgeable, and as per the call of the bishops, he must be an 'arbitrator president' not a partisan or puppet president,” the patriarch added.
He also stressed that “after two years and five months of destructive presidential void, the political and parliamentary blocs have a duty to clearly and frankly declare their stances on the candidates whose nominations have become public
Ties between al-Rahi and Speaker Nabih Berri had witnessed tensions in recent days in the wake of the patriarch's announcement last Sunday that any candidate who “has dignity” cannot accept the so-called package deal that has been proposed by the parliament speaker.
But Berri on Wednesday lauded a statement issued by the Council of Maronite Bishops and noted that it “does not contradict” with the national dialogue agreements or the proposed package deal.