A Vatican envoy will visit Lebanon later this week to help solve the one-year-old presidential stalemate that has crippled the country’s Parliament, local news agency Al-Markazia said Wednesday.
It said the former foreign minister of the Holy See, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, arrives in Beirut Friday at the head of a Vatican delegation on a visit that will last for several days.
Mamberti will discuss the Christian presence in the Middle East amid the wave of Islamic extremism and terrorism affecting the region, according to the report.
It said Mamberti would also discuss with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai and a number of Lebanese officials ways to put an end to the presidential election crisis.
Al-Markazia said the Vatican envoy will meet Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai and a number of Lebanese officials. He would also hold unannounced meetings.
Apostolic Nuncio Gabriel Katchea returns to Beirut Thursday to give an official welcome to Mamberti.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since May 2014, when President Michel Sleiman’s term expired.
Parliament failed on May 13 in its 23rd consecutive session since April last year to elect a president over a lack of quorum.
Lawmakers from MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc, Hezbollah MPs and their March 8 allies have been blamed for thwarting a quorum by boycotting parliamentary sessions.
