By MELISSA CABRAL

House Speaker Paul Ryan confirmed Tuesday that he will not be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2016.

Recently, there had been widespread speculation regarding his 2016 ambitions to run for presidency but upon returning from the Middle East, he made the announcement during a speech in Capitol Hill.

“I want to put that to rest once and for all,” Ryan said. “Let me be clear. I do not want, not will I accept, the nomination for our party…. Count me out.”

Although Ryan has opted out of campaigning for presidency, he still wants to maintain his position as House Speaker.

During his speech, Ryan made a plea to delegates arguing that they should elect a candidate who actually ran in the primary.

“Let me speak directly to the delegates on this: If no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, I believe you should only choose a person who actually participated in the primary,” he said. “If you want to be the nominee — to be the president — you should actually run for it.”

When asked by CNN if he believes only one of the final three 2016 Republican candidates — business executive Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — should be the nominee, Ryan would only say, “I’ll leave that up to the delegates.”

Nevertheless, the Wisconsin lawmaker promised to remain involved in the upcoming national debates that will help decide who will be elected as our next president.