Moussa: My Clarification of the Initiative is Official, Final
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa announced Sunday that his clarification of the Arab initiative is “official …The majority would not take half plus one and the opposition would not take one third plus one.”
Moussa told reporters after separate meetings with Premier Fouad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri he would leave Lebanon later in the day because “obstacles persist and might need more time.”
If sides “disagree on figures it doesn”t mean that the initiative has failed,” Moussa said.
He stressed that the Arab League is “biased only in favor of Lebanon … We are not exerting pressure, either the majority or the opposition.”
Moussa made the remarks after Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said he is suffering from a Urinary Track stone attack, which forced him to cancel a meeting with majority representatives and Moussa to consider the Arab initiative.
Aoun told Voice of Lebanon radio he needs “two more days” of rest before resuming his public efforts.
The meeting, originally scheduled for Saturday, was to group Aoun, ex-President Amin Gemayel and Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri with Moussa to review the outcome of talks the Arab League chief held with officials of Syrian President Bashar Assad”s regime in Damascus.
The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat said the clarification made by Moussa during his talks with Syrian officials, including Assad and his deputy Farouq al-Sharaa, focused on the fact that the Lebanese opposition should not get more than one third of the government seats and the majority should not get more than half.
Such a clarification, which prevents the Hizbullah-led opposition from having veto powers in the cabinet, was “accepted” by Syrian officials, al-Hayat reported.
The March 14 majority had proposed a 14-6-10 formula that the opposition rejected and insisted on its 10-10-10 proposal, while Moussa proposed a concept based on 13 seats for the majority, 10 seats for the opposition and seven seats for the president, the newspaper added.
It said Moussa would try to promote his proposal in Beirut based on the “positive” talks he held in Damascus.
Moussa, the newspaper said, would decide Sunday whether to stay in Beirut, waiting for progress of Aoun”s health condition to enable the latter take part in the meeting with Gemayel and Hariri.
The Arab initiative was further criticized Saturday by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who accused the Arabs of pressuring the opposition.
He urged the Arabs to work out a “domestic settlement based on the principle of partnership not on the base of pressuring a party into surrendering.”
“If the mediations and initiatives fail, we would not stand idly by the dead end. The opposition would shoulder its responsibility and has the courage to sponsor action under a political slogan,” Nasrallah threatened.