Ban Urges Lebanese Leaders to Elect President
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday implored Lebanese leaders to transcend their sectarian interests and end a protracted impasse over the planned election of a new president.
“I am deeply disappointed by the current situation in which the Lebanese people have not been able to elect their own president for such a long time,” the secretary general said in his first press conference of the year.
A vote in the Lebanese parliament to elect a new head of state has been postponed 11 times, and the legislature is now due to meet again on Saturday in the latest bid to do so.
“Failure to reach an early agreement would represent a betrayal of the expectations of both the Lebanese people and the international community,” Ban warned.
“I once again call on Lebanese leaders to think about the future of their country, transcending sectarian and individual interests,” the U.N. chief said welcoming the efforts of the Arab League to help break the stalemate.
He urged Lebanon”s neighbors, particularly Syria, to help the Lebanese “overcome this crisis … without outside interference.”
Arab League chief Amr Moussa said Sunday that he would travel to Lebanon “within two days” to discuss a plan adopted by Arab foreign ministers calling for the election of presidential candidate Gen. Michel Suleiman.
The foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League agreed at a special meeting in Cairo Saturday on a three-point plan, namely the election of a president, forming a government of national unity and the adoption of a new electoral law, Moussa said.
They called for “an immediate agreement on the formation of a national unity government” in Lebanon, constructed in such a way as to deny either faction the right to impose their policies on the other side, he said.
Under the plan, which aims to satisfy the demands of both the ruling coalition and the opposition, the new president would have the power to approve government decisions, he said.
Lebanon has been without a president since the mandate of pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud expired on November 23, amid sharp divisions between the Western-backed ruling majority and the opposition, which is backed by Syria and Iran.
Ban meanwhile reported good progress on the establishment of a special international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri.
He said he would announce the names of judges selected to serve on the tribunal “at an appropriate time in the future” and noted that they would assume their functions “on a date I will also determine soon.”
The tribunal is to be based in a former Dutch intelligence headquarters in a suburb of The Hague, following a deal with the Dutch government last year.
The court will also have jurisdiction over other attacks against anti-Syrian Lebanese figures carried out between
October 2004 and December 2005 if they are linked to the Hariri slaying.
U.N. investigators probing Hariri”s murder have identified several people who they say may have been involved in the slaying, but no one has been charged.