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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanon presidential vote postponed for 12th time |
| 2008-01-12 |
| A 12th parliamentary session to elect Lebanon's president was postponed on Friday to January 21 despite intense international efforts for rival parties to agree on an Arab League compromise. "Saturday's session has been postponed until Monday, January 21 at noon," Ali Hamdan, spokesman for parliament speaker Nabih Berri, told AFP. He said Berri decided to delay the session after meeting with Arab League chief Amr Mussa, who has been holding marathon talks with Lebanese leaders since Wednesday in hopes they would agree on an Arab plan to end the presidential crisis. "Because the negotiations are ongoing, the speaker decided to postpone the vote," Hamdan said. Mussa was expected to leave Beirut on Saturday. Officials from both the ruling Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition had earlier predicted that the vote would not take place due to the continued standoff between the two sides. "Everything indicates that tomorrow's (Saturday's) session will meet the same fate as the 11 previous ones and be postponed," Elias Atallah, a deputy with the ruling majority, told AFP. |
| Posted by:Fred |