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Lebanon slid deeper into crisis on Wednesday when Hezbollah and its allies thwarted a bid by their rivals to elect a top IMF official as president, sharpening sectarian tensions and underlining the dim hopes for reviving the crumbling state.
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Four years since Lebanon slid into a financial meltdown that marks its worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war, parliament failed for a 12th time to elect someone to fill the post reserved for a Maronite Christian under the country’s sectarian system.
Lawmakers from the Iran-backed armed Shi’ite group Hezbollah and allies including the Shi’ite Amal Movement withdrew from the session to obstruct a bid by the main Christian parties to elect IMF official Jihad Azour.
The standoff has opened up a sectarian faultline, with one of Hezbollah’s main Christian allies – Gebran Bassil – lining up behind the bid to elect Azour, alongside anti-Hezbollah Christian factions.
Azour, the IMF’s Middle East Director and an ex-finance minister, won the support of 59 of parliament’s 128 lawmakers in an initial vote, short of the two-thirds needed to win in the first round. Suleiman Frangieh, backed by Hezbollah and its allies, got 51 votes.
Hezbollah and its allies then withdrew, denying the two-thirds quorum required for a second round of voting in which a candidate can win with the support of 65 lawmakers.
It leaves Lebanon with no immediate prospect of filling the presidency, which has been vacant since the term of the Hezbollah-allied President Michel Aoun ended in October.
Hezbollah, which says it is exercising its constitutional rights, is backing its close Christian ally Frangieh, a friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who strongly supports Hezbollah’s right to possess weapons.
Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, has unleashed fierce rhetoric in their campaign against…
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