Kouchner: Syria Went Too Far in Demands

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said Syria went too far in its demands over the election of a new Lebanese president.

 

“The Syrians went too far in their demands,” Kouchner told the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat in remarks published Wednesday, adding that “elections did not take place in Lebanon despite the existence of a consensus candidate — Gen. Michel Suleiman.”

 

He said France had put forward a “document very similar to that adopted by the Arab League” in Cairo which called for the election of Suleiman as president, the formation of a government of national unity and the adoption of a new electoral law.

 

Kouchner said “Lebanon”s friends and not friends of a one sect want presidential elections to take place in accordance with the constitution which stipulates that presidential elections should precede the appointment of a prime minister.”

 

Meanwhile, a senior French security source told Al Hayat in Paris that Syria and its allies “give the impression that they do not desire the election of Gen. Michel Suleiman as President.”