Region | Lebanon
Election delay unacceptable, US tells Lebanon
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday again postponed a session to elect a new president until March 25 - the 16th such delay since September - as rival factions remain entrenched in their positions on power-sharing in the future government.
- Agencies
- Published: 12:23 March 10, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the vote may be rescheduled from Tuesday to March 25
Beirut: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday again postponed a session to elect a new president until March 25 - the 16th such delay since September - as rival factions remain entrenched in their positions on power-sharing in the future government.
The White House on Monday condemned delays in the vote as "unacceptable" and urged outside forces to stop meddling in the deadlocked political process there.
"We would highly encourage those who are interfering from outside of Lebanon to cease and desist and allow the Lebanese to move forward and elect a president," spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "We are very concerned"
Arab summit
The sharply divided parliament was to meet on Tuesday to elect Army commander General Michel Sulaiman as a consensus president. His selection is the single issue the US-backed anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the Syrian-backed opposition agree on.
Berri said the vote may be rescheduled from Tuesday to March 25, bringing it just four days before an Arab summit, scheduled for March 29-30 in Damascus, which some leaders will probably only attend if the Lebanon crisis is resolved.
A Lebanese newspaper quoted Berri as describing the Lebanese situations as “being in a state of great paralysis,'' and if this were to continue he would be forced to postpone the session once again.
It is power-sharing and the shape of the future cabinet, however, that has the two sides at loggerheads, with the opposition demanding veto power over future government decisions, a demand which the majority has strongly rejected.
Lebanon is embroiled in its worst political crisis since the end of its 1975-90 civil war. Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud left office on November 23 without a successor being elected.
Opposition boycotts have thwarted attempts to elect a president by preventing a two-thirds quorum.
The three-month presidential deadlock has compounded the yearlong fierce power struggle between the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the opposition led by Hezbollah, which has sporadically degenerated into street clashes in Beirut between supporters of the rival camps.
It has also cast doubts on an upcoming Arab summit in Syria, the patron of the Hezbollah-led opposition.
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