Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was quoted Thursday as saying that electing a new president on a consensus base means that U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 "is over and folded." Resolution 1559, adopted in September 2004, called for the withdrawal of the Syrian Army from Lebanon, the holding of presidential elections without foreign intervention, and the disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias deployed in Lebanon, specifically Hezbollah.The newspaper as-Safir quoted Berri, who also heads the Shiite AMAL Movement, as saying that talks he has held with MP Saad Hariri were "very good and Sheik Saad Hariri has a very serious and honest will to achieve consensus."
"Succeeding in achieving presidential elections means that resolution 1559 has been folded (regarding the presidency and the withdrawal of the Syrian army) because the rest is in 1701," Berri was quoted as saying.
Disarming Hezbollah Key in 1559
Lebanon's Syrian-dominated Parliament amended the constitution and extended President Emile Lahoud's term for three years one day after 1559 was adopted in an apparent defiance of the Security Council. However, Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in April 2005, less than two months after the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri by a powerful explosion in Beirut. The issue of disbanding Hizbullah's armed wing as well as Palestinian bases in Lebanon remains unresolved, however.
Resolution 1701, which ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hizbullah in the summer of 2006, reactivated resolution 1559 and banned the smuggling of weapons from Syria to Hizbullah and other factions loyal to the Damascus regime in Lebanon. Hizbullah, which leads the opposition, has called for the election of a president who rejects resolution 1559.