Washington Keener to See Lebanese President Elected

U.S. Charge d”Affaires Michele Sison denied that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the absence of a president in Lebanon was not a problem and that her top priority was to keep Premier Fouad Saniora as head of the executive body.

 

Sison told An Nahar daily on Wednesday that the Bush administration wanted presidential elections in Lebanon to be held as soon as possible.

 

She stressed that Lebanon was still a priority and that Washington has the same objectives of the Arab initiative in terms of electing a new Lebanese head of state and ending the presidential vacuum.

 

As Safir daily on Monday quoted Rice as telling foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council that her concern was to keep Saniora in power and not the election of a new Lebanese president.

 

“What”s wrong with keeping the situation in Lebanon as it is? Our priority is to keep Fouad Saniora as head of the democratically elected government…and that he acts according to the powers granted to him and the president,” An Arab diplomatic source quoted Rice as saying.

Sison described as nonsense accusations against the United States that it wants to prolong the crisis gripping Lebanon and back the government rather than a new president.

 

She told An Nahar that her country was keener to see that a president is elected, expressing hope that parliament would choose a new head of state during a session scheduled for April 22.

 

Lebanon has been without a president since November, when Emile Lahoud stepped down with no successor elected.

 

Seventeen sessions in parliament to elect a successor to Lahoud have failed since November amid bickering between the majority and the opposition. A new session is scheduled for April 22.