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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hezbollah receives green light from Iranian masters to elect Suleiman

2007-12-08

Feuding Lebanese factions appear heading to a compromise that would facilitate a constitutional amendment allowing the election of Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as Lebanon's new president. The settlement, reached during talks between parliamentary bloc leaders on the sidelines of Friday's parliamentary session, sets the mechanism for adopting a constitutional amendment and electing a president based on following procedure :

1 - A petition signed by 10 MPs from both the majority and opposition camps.

2 - Speaker Nabih Berri would invite parliament to a "legislative session" that the daily newspaper an-Nahar said would convene at 10:00 am on Monday to adopt the proposed amendment of article 49 of the constitution that bans ranking public sector employees from competing for the presidency.

3 - Berri, after the bill is adopted, would refer it to Premier Fouad Siniora's majority cabinet that would tackle the issue on Monday after noon in the presence of the opposition's six ministers who resigned more than a year ago.

4 - The opposition ministers would register in the session's minutes their reservations to all decisions adopted by the Siniora government since they quit in November 2006, which gives their political factions the legal right to raise the issue in future meetings of forthcoming cabinets to be formed after the election of a new head of state.

5 - The Siniora cabinet, in line with the constitution, would adopt the amendment bill and refer it to Parliament for final ratification.

6- The house would convene on Tuesday to ratify the amendment bill into law then hold another session to vote in Gen. Suleiman for the nation's top post.

An-Nahar said all parliamentary blocs would take part in the constitutional amendment parliamentary session, including Gen. Michel Aoun's Change and Reform Bloc. However, Parliamentary sources told Naharnet that MPs from Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, which is part of the Change and Reform Bloc, would not take pert in amending the constitution, noting that the movement's objection to constitutional amendments is "a matter of principle." This, one source said, "does not mean that the FPM is opposing Gen. Suleiman's Nomination. On the contrary FPM MPs would take part in the session set to elect him for the presidency on Tuesday, once the constitutional amendment is adopted."

The rather stalled effort to elect a new head of state was set into motion shortly after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner wrapped up four days of feverish discussions with Lebanese leaders on settling the presidential crisis and left after telling the Lebanese they may elect a head of state next Tuesday. "I think that Tuesday you may have a president," Kouchner told reporters at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport. "I have accomplished my duty ... but what remains is the last little effort for the opposition and majority to agree on forming a team to amend the constitution so that a president can be elected," Kouchner added.

Berri was quoted by an-Nahar as saying French mediators "exerted great efforts with the various factions and they have set the fertile ground for maintaining contacts and opening channels of dialogue between the majority and opposition to conclude the presidential election."

An-Nahar reported that Kouchner failed to declare a breakthrough in Lebanon due to "regional" factors, including a meeting held in the Syrian capital of Damascus by some factions of the Lebanese opposition on Friday and did not result in a decision to facilitate the French initiative. However, an "encouraging sign" appeared from Tehran after Kouchner left Lebanon when Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's spiritual leader Ali Khamenei, made a statement saying he congratulates Gen. Suleiman for winning the presidency. This was understood to be the password or green light from Iran to Hezbollah to go ahead and elect General Suleiman as the new president .

The election of a new president may not mean the end to the Lebanese problems , but as the French Foreign Minister said " solve your problems ... one at a time " .

Posted by:Fred

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