Kataeb Party leader MP Samy Gemayel reaffirmed his conviction that Hezbollah does not want a president to be elected soon, saying that Speaker Nabih Berri's insistence on dialogue aims to shift the blame onto the opposition and portray it as an obstructive force.

“Therefore, we should not get bogged down in discussions about the formalities of consultations, as it would only fuel the arguments of Hezbollah and Amal,” Gemayel said in an interview on MTV’s news bulletin on Friday.

"We reject any official status to be given to the consultations as it would render it unconstitutional by giving it an institutional character through the issuance of invitations and the organization of the dialogue session via the General Secretariat of the Parliament,” Gemayel noted. “Before discussing any consultative framework, we need guarantees. Above all, the Shiite Hezbollah-Amal duo must declare in advance the willingness to consider names other than former Minister Sleiman Frangieh and announce clearly that he is no longer a candidate.”

“No price should be requested in exchange for Frangieh’s candidacy withdrawal,” Gemayel stressed. “There is no need for consultations if the duo remains adamant on Frangieh."