Sarkozy Slams Berri Over Parliament Key

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has slammed Speaker Nabih Berri for shutting parliament”s doors and stressed the Lebanese should elect a head of state through “understanding.”

 

“We want the election of a president in Lebanon through understanding. We don”t accept that the parliament speaker keeps the key of the legislature to shut it,” Sarkozy told Al Jazeera TV network in French on Sunday.

 

“Which country in the world accepts” this, the French president wondered.

 

“We are with Lebanon because Lebanon represents diversity,” he stressed in the interview.

 

Sarkozy”s comments came the same day Berri postponed to February 11 a parliament session to elect a new Lebanese president.

 

The latest delay brings to 13 the number of sessions that have been postponed since September, amid failure by the rival parties to pick a successor to President Emile Lahoud whose term ended in November.