Arab FMs Urge Lebanese Factions to Elect Suleiman President
Arab foreign ministers on Wednesday urged feuding Lebanese politicians to elect Army Commander General Michel Suleiman as their new president ahead of an Arab summit March 29-30.
The top diplomats from the 22-member league made the appeal in a statement at the end of a meeting in Cairo to discuss the protracted Lebanese crisis and preparations for the summit to be hosted by Syria.
The ministers “invite Lebanese leaders to elect the consensus candidate, General Michel Suleiman, at the date which has been set” for his election, to fill a post vacant for more than three months, a statement said.
Lebanon has been without a president since November, when pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud quit at the end of his term.
But efforts to hold a vote in parliament have foundered since September, with 15 sessions scrapped amid fierce disputes between Lebanon”s ruling parliamentary majority and an opposition.
A new session has been set for March 11.
Saudi and other Arab leaders have threatened to boycott the summit in Syria if the Lebanese fail to elect a president and resolve their differences.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia accuse Syria of blocking efforts to elect a new president for Lebanon, which was under Syrian military domination for 29 years until Damascus withdrew its troops in 2005.
The Arab ministers also urged the Lebanese leaders “to agree to set up a national unity government as quickly as possible,” the statement said.
They also reiterated their support for a three-point Arab rescue plan for Lebanon which calls for the election of Suleiman, the creation of a national unity government in which no party has veto power and a new election law.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki meanwhile held brief talks at Cairo airport on the Lebanese crisis and the Syria summit, airport officials said.
The two men met for nearly 90 minutes, the officials said, adding that Faisal was leaving Egypt at the end of the Arab League meeting while Mottaki was on a stopover in the Egyptian capital. There were no further details.
Arab League Chief Amr Moussa called for solidarity to overcome the Lebanese political crisis.
“Solidarity, in the form of national reconciliation, is our only way out of the current crisis and future crises,” Moussa said in his opening speech.
Picture: Arab foreign ministers attend a meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Arab foreign ministers opened talks here Wednesday on the agenda of a summit scheduled for later this month amid a dispute with Syria, the host, over Lebanon”s political crisis.(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)