The talks over Lebanon’s political impasse come at a critical time as the south continues to be a tension zone between Hezbollah and Israel. 

Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri held a “useful and promising” meeting with the Quintet Group’s ambassadors in Beirut on Tuesday over the stalled Lebanese presidency file.

The group — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States, and France — held their first meeting in Paris in February last year under an initiative led by French Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The group met again in Doha on July 17, 2023, where they discussed “concrete options with respect to implementing measures against those who are blocking progress” in the election of a president.

The latest discussions in Ain El-Tineh in Lebanon came amid Lebanon’s prolonged presidential vacuum that started after former president Michel Aoun left office in October 2022. The country has since failed to elect a president at least 12 times.

Qatar was represented by its ambassador to Lebanon, Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who “discussed the latest developments of the current political situation in Lebanon,” according to Doha’s foreign ministry.

In a separate statement on the meeting, Berri said, “The position was unified. The meeting was constructive and promising.”

The five ambassadors also met last week where they discussed the divide between Lebanon’s different parties and they are scheduled to meet again within two weeks, according to L’Orient-Le Jour.

The talks over Lebanon’s political impasse come at a critical time as the south continues to be a tension zone between Hezbollah and Israel. 

Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 151 people in Lebanon, including journalists, since the beginning of the flare-up on October 7, 2023, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

French ambassador to Lebanon Herve Magro stressed during last week’s meeting in Beirut that the presidential vacuum cannot wait until the end of the war in Gaza. France’s envoy for Lebanon, Le Drian, is set to visit Beirut to further discuss prospects for filling the presidency seat.

There have been several names on the table among Lebanese politicians, including Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, and Suleiman Frangieh, who is Hezbollah’s preferred candidate.

Qatar has repeatedly rejected claims over having a preferred candidate, stressing the president must be elected by the people.

Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, told Beirut’s Al Modon on January 7 that the presidential choice “is an internal Lebanese matter, and the first and the last decision is for the Lebanese themselves.”

Notably, the Gulf state played a strategic role in bridging gaps between the Lebanese sides in 2008. At the time, Qatar held talks that resulted in an agreement between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah following an 18-month political crisis.

Electing a president is seen as a crucial step in resolving Lebanon’s economic crisis, the worst since the 1975 Lebanese civil war. The 2020 Beirut Port Explosion coupled with the COVID-19 outbreak contributed to the country’s worst economic downfall.

The Lebanese pound reached a record-low value in 2023, losing about 97% of its value to the U.S. dollar. 

Lebanon’s parliament passed an amended budget for 2024 on January 26 that many believe did not include reforms to keep the country’s economy afloat and overcome its worst downfall.

Most depositors in Lebanon are still unable to access their savings, pushing more than 80% of the country’s population into poverty.

The Lebanese population have long pointed to the ruling elite as being behind the country’s current state and protests since 2019 have called for political reform in Lebanon. 

Reform has been a demand by the International Monetary Fund to provide Lebanon with a $3 billion aid package.

Lebanon has witnessed a deep political divide for decades after the 1975 civil war. At the time, various Lebanese sides engaged in a bloody civil war that lasted for 15 years, ending with the help of the 1989 Taif Agreement, negotiated in Saudi Arabia at the time.

However, the remnants of the war have appeared to remain in Lebanon, a country with a long and deep political divide.