Thirteenth delay in Lebanon’s presidential election
Beirut (AsiaNews) – For the thirteenth time, elections for the President of Lebanon have been delayed, now postponed until February 11th. Hopes that the Lebanese crises could be resolved, hopes which had increased considerably in the wake of the announcement of a meeting between Arab League Secretary General, Amr Mussa, majority leader Saad Hariri and the opposition “negotiator”, Michel Aoun, and former president Amin Gemayel, have been immediately dashed. On the one hand Aoun has declared ill-health on the other Moussa – fresh from a visit to Damascus where he met with President Bashar el Assad – has been forced to admit the impossibility of agreement between the majority and opposition on the formation of the future national unity government.
Thus a discouraged and slightly irritated Moussa left the capital of the land of the Cedars, despite his declaration that “disagreement on details does not mean the Arab initiative has failed”. The League in fact has put forward the immediate election of Army Chief, Michel Sleiman, as the next head of state, the formation of a national unity government and the elaboration of a new electoral law. Officially, all are agreed on Sleiman, the real crux of the problem is the division of government ministries with the opposition demanding a “third of the block”, in short a number of ministers which will allow it to effectively block any government decision, the so called 10+10+10 formula which gives the head of state the choice of the last third of the ministers. A formula which has been rejected outright by the majority.
The Arab League, has come up with an alternative, based on the principle of “no winners no losers”, put forward by Moussa, who believes the composition should be 13+10+7. It has been rejected by both blocks.
In the meantime Hezbollah, which leads the opposition, has once again sought to provoke Israel by announcing that it has body parts belonging to its soldiers, a gravely serious issue for the Hebrew faith, and has spoke of radical change should there be renewed conflict with Jerusalem.
This move appears part of a Syrian plan to rekindle tensions in Lebanon. Regarding this Stratfor, a US based geopolitical study centre, maintains that Damascus has a series of operations currently underway such as last weeks attack on a US embassy car as well as threats against deputies from the ruling majority – six of whom have been identified as “targets” – to the supply of arms and training of groups close to its ideologies and the instigation of Palestinians in the General command for the liberation of Palestine to provoke clashes in refugee camps. (PD)
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