Sarkozy pledges to shun Damascus until regime facilitates Lebanese poll

 

France has vowed to cut off contact with Syria until it shows a willingness to end the long-standing political crisis in Lebanon by facilitating the election of a new president, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said from Cairo on Sunday. “We will have no more contact with Syria … until we have proof of Syrian willingness to let Lebanon appoint a consensus president,” Sarkozy told reporters during a joint news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak also urged Syria to facilitate the Lebanese presidential election.

 

Sarkozy, on his first official trip to the Middle East as president, said France wants a president for Lebanon. “It”s time for Syria to prove with action what it has not stopped saying in speeches. We”re now waiting for acts on Syria”s part and not speeches,” he said.

 

Sarkozy spoke with Syrian President Bashar Assad as recently as the beginning of December to urge him to “facilitate” the election in Lebanon. Sarkozy said he didn”t regret contacting Assad, adding the move was well intentioned. He said France is ready to provide the money needed to create the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon to try suspects in the slaying of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

 

Mubarak described the political deadlock in Lebanon as “dangerous” and appealed to Syria to “use its influence in Lebanon” to work toward reconciliation among the Lebanese.

 

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said an upcoming Arab Foreign Minister”s conference would discuss Lebanon”s presidential crisis.

 

“It is impossible for any country, and especially an Arab country, to be without a president or government and paralyzed for a long period of time. Every time a session of Parliament is called, it is postponed for a week and we do not know for how many weeks this will go on,” Mubarak said.

 

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Sunday telephoned Mubarak, who told him of his meeting with Sarkozy and discussed the upcoming Arab foreign ministers meeting scheduled for January 6. Mubarak assured Siniora that Egypt will spare no effort to help Lebanon to return to normality and said Egypt “supports the election of a president for Lebanon as soon as possible.”

 

Russian legislator Mikhail Margelov on Saturday urged Parliament to elect the Lebanese Armed Forces commander, General Michel Suleiman, as president and accused “some opposition blocs” of hampering the country”s return to constitutional normality. He demanded that “regional powers” stop hindering the presidential election.

 

Internally, rival camps remain as divided as ever.

March 14 MP Nayla Mouawad said the majority will never accept giving the opposition a “blocking third” of Cabinet posts in a new government, rejecting what she described as the “handcuffing” of a new president with preconditions that would render the president “an employee of March 8 forces.”

 

In a radio interview Sunday, Mouawad said the majority”s option of electing a president by half plus one of MPs remains but will only be a last resort “after exhausting all possibilities for reaching consensus.”

 

“The March 8 forces, with Hizbullah, Syria and Iran behind them, do not want a government in Lebanon and do not want Taif but want Lebanon to remain an arena for settling regional and international scores at Lebanon”s expense,” the March 14 MP said.

 

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc leader MP Mohammad Raad, speaking at a rally in Sidon on Sunday, accused the ruling coalition of toppling national accord and the Constitution, reneging on agreements and rejecting any formula for consensus.

 

“The political crisis has escalated because the ruling group has gone back on what has been agreed on with the French in order to arrive at a consensus on [Suleiman”s] nomination for president and establishing a national unity government in which political blocs are represented according to their representative size in Parliament,” Raad said.

 

“The Lebanese opposition is the stronger side, and its strength lies in its steadfast, unwavering stance, chiefly its constant search for political consensus and dialogue,” Raad added.

 

Siniora on Saturday accused Speaker Nabih Berri of seizing Parliament”s authority by adopting an interpretation of the Constitution which postulates that no amendment is needed to elect Suleiman president.

 

Siniora said that Berri”s action was “dangerous” and bypassed Parliament as the only body that has the right to adopt constitutional interpretations and amendments.

 

Berri, in turn, accused the premier of violating the law. A statement issued by the speaker”s office said Berri “did not interpret the Constitution and thus did not seize any power, particularly that of the Parliament.”

 

It added that the speaker is simply implementing the provisions of the Constitution as the parliamentary system empowers him to do under Article 5 of the internal bylaws of the Chamber of Deputies.

 

Picture: French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks during a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. France will have no more contact with Syria until Damascus shows willingness to let Lebanon end its long-running political crisis and find a new president, Sarkozy said on Sunday.
(AFP/Jack Guez)