Arab MPs in Beirut to break presidential deadlock

 

A delegation of MPs mandated by the Arab League arrived on Sunday in Lebanon in a fresh bid to break a deep political impasse blocking the election of a president.
 
“We in the Arab world are concerned with the great rift in Lebanon as well as the fragile security situation,” Mohammed Jassem al-Saqr, head of the Arab Parliament, an arm of the Arab League, told reporters in Beirut.

 

“We will do all we can for national reconciliation in Lebanon,” said Saqr at the start of a visit due to last several days.

 

The delegation is due to meet Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, head of the Western-backed government, and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key member of the Hezbollah-led opposition backed by Syria and Iran.

“If the situation requires that we go to Syria, we will,” Saqr said.

 

Damascus is to host an Arab summit on March 29-30 and several Arab countries have linked the level of their participation at the summit to the election of a president in Beirut.

 

Regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia blame Syria — which had a military presence in Lebanon for decades — for obstructing the vote.

 

Parliament is scheduled to meet on March 25 to elect a new president after 16 previous attempts have been postponed amid a deadlock between the majority and the opposition on the make-up of a future government.

 

The visit also comes on the heels of three failed attempts by Arab League chief Amr Mussa to break the deadlock and secure the election of army chief General Michel Sleiman as the country”s next president.

 

Lebanon has been without a president since November 24, after pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud quit at the end of his term.