Kouchner: No president will be elected in Lebanon

 

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said the Lebanese parliament will not elect a new president during a scheduled legislative session on March 25.

 

“No. A president will not be elected. And I am very sorry for that,” Kouchner said in Paris Tuesday when asked about the probability of the election process moving forward.

 

He also believed a new Lebanese head of state will not be elected before the March 29-30 Arab summit in the Syrian capital.

 

“Are there going to be presidential elections before the Arab Summit in Damascus?” he asked, “No I don”t think so. But I hope I am mistaken,” he told the news conference.

 

He wondered whether all Lebanese are willing that the French get in contact with all sides in Beirut should Paris launch a new initiative.

 

“The French initiative didn”t succeed and later became an Arab initiative comprising three points upon which the majority and the opposition reach an agreement” with our help, he said.

 

He denied that France was launching a new initiative, but said it would be better to have a European plan aimed at solving Lebanon”s presidential crisis.

 

Kouchner stressed that the European Union does not have a common stance regarding the crisis in the Middle East and Lebanon.

 

The stance “hasn”t been unanimous because it is difficult to take a unanimous position by 27 states inside the European Union,” he told reporters.

 

An Nahar daily on Wednesday quoted French diplomatic sources as saying the Security Council will discuss Lebanon”s political crisis during consultations about U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon”s report on the implementation of Resolution 1559.

 

The sources said that the United Nations is worried about the dangerous situation in Lebanon and that discussions might pave the way for a new initiative by the international community.