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Lebanese Parliament stressed on Sunday that putting an end to the presidential vacuum must be a " priority," according to the Speaker Nabih Berri.
"The election of a new president should be a priority, because the confidence of citizens and the world in Lebanon would erode should we continue our failure to elect a president," Berri said in a televised speech marking the 36th anniversary of the disappearance of Shiite cleric Imam Moussa al-Sadr.
He added that "the election of a president would open the door to parliamentary elections, and launch a political process that is needed in the confrontation against the transnational terrorism."
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May due to the sharp political rift between the rival March 8 and March 14 camps.
Berri called on the Lebanese to close ranks in order to "put an end to strife and divisions," adding that the time has come "to devise a roadmap to implement the Taef Accord instead of manipulating it."
The Taef accord was reached in Saudi Arabia in 1989 and has put an end to the Lebanese civil war and has been adopted by the parliament in 1990 as a constitution.
Besides, Berri also noted that diversity and national unity are a "necessity" in order to confront terrorism, and "the same in the confrontation against the Israeli aggression
On Aug. 2, the Lebanese army fought a fierce battle against Syrian Islamists gunmen who infiltrated the border town of Arsal following the arrest of Imad jomaa, an al-Nusra Front leader. At least 18 soldiers were killed and 86 others wounded and 33 army and Internal Security Forces (ISF) members were reported missing.
In August 1978, al-Sadr was invited to Libya by its then ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and was trying to negotiate an end to the Lebanese 1975-1990 civil war. But al-Sadr and his two companions never returned.
In August 2008, Lebanon issued arrest warrants against Gaddafi and some of his aides, accusing them of kidnapping Sadr and his companions.
