Lebanon Christian leader says ending deadlock key to war truce

The head of a major Christian party in politically deadlocked Lebanon said Saturday that electing a new president was key to obtaining a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon has been without a head of state for almost two years amid a crushing economic crisis and, now, as Israel heavily bombards the country saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites.

Hezbollah allies and their adversaries including the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) party have been deadlocked over the presidency, unable to reach a consensus.

"The urgency first and foremost is a ceasefire to end the catastrophe that our people are enduring," said Samir Geagea, who heads the LF and parliament's largest Christian bloc.

"In the absence of serious international initiatives, our only option to reach a ceasefire is by electing a president," Geagea, who is close to the United States and Saudi Arabia, said in a press conference.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah unilaterally opened what it says is a "support front" for Gaza from Lebanon, launching cross-border attacks into Israel the day after Palestinian ally Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

Early last month Geagea accused Hezbollah of dragging Lebanon into a war with Israel, "as if there were no state".

Almost a year of cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into all-out war on September 23, with Israel heavily bombarding south and east Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs, saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites.

Geagea called for "a credible president who commits clearly to implementing international resolutions, in particular resolutions 1559, 1680 and 1701, in all their provisions".

Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1680 called for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

Adopted in 2006, Resolution 1701 led to a ceasefire in an Israel-Hezbollah war that year and said the Lebanese army and peacekeepers should be the only armed forces deployed in the country's south.

Hezbollah is the lone group that refused to give up its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of "resistance" against Israel.

The group was founded after Israel besieged the capital Beirut in 1982, and has since become a powerful domestic political player, though detractors have accused it of being a "state within a state".

Geagea said a president would have to ensure that "strategic decisions belong solely to the state".