Rice in Lebanon to Push for Presidential Election?
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will arrive in Lebanon on a surprise visit in the coming hours in an effort to speed up the election of a new president, well informed sources told Al Hayat newspaper.
The sources told the daily that Rice will meet with Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier Fouad Saniora and leaders of the March 14 forces.
The Lebanese media on Wednesday speculated that the arrival of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch to Beirut the day before and his overnight stay in the Lebanese capital was to pave the way for Rice”s visit to
push Lebanese leaders into ending a political crisis and electing a president.
Welch on Tuesday urged Berri to shoulder his responsibilities in order to bring an end to a three-week power vacuum.
He made the remarks after separate talks with MP Saad Hariri and Saniora, on his second visit to Beirut in four days.
“The speaker of parliament must assume his constitutional responsibilities and a leadership role… and allow parliament to meet and to vote,” Welch said after talks with the prime minister.
“Parliament needs to function,” he said, in reference to the body”s failure to meet in over a year and the inability of majority and opposition deputies to elect a president since September.
The country has been without a president since the term of Emile Lahoud expired on November 23.
On Monday, a parliamentary session was delayed for the 9th time until Saturday.
The majority and the opposition have agreed in principle to elect army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman but remain at odds on how to amend the constitution.
“Members of parliament should elect a president without conditions and without any further delay,” Welch said after talks with Hariri that lasted an hour.
Welch expressed the “alarm and disappointment” of the U.S. and the international community at the impasse, reiterating a statement issued in Paris on Monday by representatives of nine Western and Arab countries, and the United Nations.
He said he was asked to return to Beirut by U.S. President George Bush and Rice to state that the international community is “concerned over the prolonged political crisis.”
Welch blamed the opposition, as well as foreign parties — a veiled reference to Syria — of blocking efforts to find a successor to Lahoud.
“This destructive behavior should cease,” he said.
Berri retorted in a statement released by his office later. “Speaker Berri knows very well his responsibilities and hopes that others know theirs” too.
“Welch should put pressure on those who listen to him and obey him so that they, too, shoulder their responsibilities,” the statement said, in reference to the majority.
Welch”s arrival back in Beirut along with Deputy National Security adviser Elliott Abrams coincided with a previously unannounced visit by British minister for the Middle East Kim Howells who met separately with Saniora and Suleiman, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Howells said he conveyed to Saniora the international community”s concern over the prolonged crisis, insisting that the election should proceed without further delay or foreign intervention, NNA said.