Lack of a breakthrough in Lebanon’s presidential election was a foregone conclusion ahead of a parliamentary vote scheduled for Thursday with a majority of March 8 lawmakers pledging to boycott the session again. The lack of quorum will bring Lebanon ever closer to presidential vacuum as President Michel Sleiman’s term ends Sunday.
But despite the continued deadlock, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun, whose bloc will shun the parliamentary session, offered conciliatory remarks toward his rivals across the political aisle, saying Wednesday that he along with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah formed Lebanon’s power “trinity.” [Link]