[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
expressed caution on Friday regarding the possibility of electing a new president in Leb in the near future, a day after ex-PM Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
formally endorsed Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
founder MP
Michel Aoun...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
for the presidency.
In response to a news hound's question during Washington talks with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah, Kerry hoped there will be progress in Leb but noted that he is not sure about the outcome of Hariri's move.
"This stalemate on the issue of the presidency is hurting Leb and hurts the region and we hope it will move forward," Kerry added.
Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
bloc MP George Adwan later tweeted that Kerry's statements "prove that the presidential juncture is Lebanese par excellence," noting that "his skepticism increases Aoun's chances."
In a speech on Thursday, Hariri described his decision to endorse Aoun as a "major political risk" that he is willing to take for the sake of the country.
Leb has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah
...
Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as
The Resistanceand purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.