French Envoy's letters to Lebanese MPs met with limited enthusiasm

Parliamentary sources have indicated the road ahead for the French President's special envoy to Lebanon, former Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, seems politically challenging.

His anticipated visit to Beirut in late September aims to meet with Lebanese MPs in an effort to break through the impasse that has hindered the election of a president.

This article was originally published in, translated from the Arab outlet of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The source explained to "Al-Sharq Al-Awsat" that Le Drian has politically paved his way by sending letters to 38 MPs ahead of his return to Beirut. In these letters, he asked them to address two questions regarding the qualifications the future President should possess and the priorities needed to extricate Lebanon from its ongoing crisis.

However, the source noted that the responses to his request have fallen short of the expected level of engagement.

The parliamentary source pointed out that the French envoy's letters have not garnered any positive reactions. They seemed almost ignored, not because they repeated the content of the Quintet Committee's statement following its meeting in Doha, Qatar, but due to the loosely defined number of MPs involved in responding to Le Drian's messages.

This diverges from his understanding with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who agreed that the number should not exceed 15 MPs representing parliamentary blocs, independents, and Change MPs.

The same source affirmed that Berri holds a different point of view. He had called for dialogue to navigate the presidential stalemate hindering the President's election, asserting that he did not intervene in selecting the deputies included in the messages received from Le Drian. 

Berri contented himself with expressing his opinion, hoping the meeting between the French envoy and the deputies would be productive.