Visiting Arab League (AL) chief Amr Moussa said on Thursday that Lebanese rival factions had agreed to establish a national unity government to resolve the current political crisis, the al-Arabiya television reported. Is "unity" the new Arab meme thingy?
Their "stability" thingy was working out so well, too.
Moussa told a news conference that the parties had agreed on a cabinet of national unity, which would include opposition minority and majority members, but they wanted to discuss "guarantees" to make it work. "Another round of talks is needed to reach an agreement on the final version (of the national unity government)," Moussa added. "We want to reach a formula of no victor, no loser... a win-win situation," the AL chief said.
That makes even less sense than usual.
Moussa, who arrived here Tuesday, held talks with the major players in Lebanon's political crisis, including Seniora and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
Opposition supporters have been camping out in central Beirut since Dec. 1, paralyzing the heart of the capital, in a bid to press Seniora for concession.
Moussa said, agreement has been reached on "calming down the street (protests) and halting demonstrations and escalation." He promised that he would return to Lebanon in "a few days" to continue his efforts aimed at settling the dispute between the Hezbollah-led camp that seeks to topple Premier Fouad Seniora's government and the majority that supports the current administration. "I hope that we will be able to finalize (a deal) before the holidays... in two weeks or so," Moussa added.
An Arab League envoy, Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail, told the same news conference that the two-week-old opposition sit-in in central Beirut would continue but there should be no mass demonstrations.