March 14 MPs plan to show up for unlikely vote on presidency

 

MPs from the ruling March 14 coalition said late Monday that since Speaker Nabih Berri had not officially postponed Tuesday”s scheduled session to elect a new president of Lebanon, they would go to the House in hopes of doing so. The postponement would be the 18th since September 2007 and the presidential seat has been vacant since November 2007 when Emile Lahoud left office after the end of his term.

 

Berri reiterated in remarks published in As-Safir newspaper on Monday that dialogue was the only way to achieve a presidential election.

 

The speaker had recently proposed resuming national dialogue sessions between all political parties and said that his renewed offer was aimed rescuing the Arab League initiative after it had reached a deadlock.

 

The Arab plan stipulates electing the commander of the Lebanese Ared Forces, General Michel Suleiman, as president, forming a national unity government and adopting a new electoral law. However, the proposal failed to materialize after weeks of negotiations.

 

“What have they got to lose if they sat around the dialogue table?” Berri asked.

 

He blamed the failure of the Arab initiative on the March 14 Forces” determination to retain the 2000 electoral law. “The insistence by some on the 2000 election law is blocking dialogue,” he said. “Let it be known that this law is not acceptable.”

 

Berri said March 14 members were resisting dialogue because they fear the discussions would include the electoral law, “and, thus, their real stances will be exposed.”

 

The speaker”s comments came as French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner tries to arrange an international meeting to discuss the Lebanese crisis  on the sidelines of a Kuwaiti-hosted conference of Iraq”s neighbors and other powers to discuss the security situation the wartorn country. 

 

Kouchner said the meeting, at which Lebanon will be represented by acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri and senior government adviser Mohammad Shattah, is aimed at reviving the Lebanese dialogue.

 

But the ministerial-level meeting is expected to call for the immediate election of a new president to replace Lahoud.

 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is attending the Kuwait meeting, reiterated her country”s support for the government of Prime Minister Faoud Siniora at a news conference in Manama, Bahrain.

 

The crisis pits the Beirut government, which is close to Saudi Arabia and the United States, against an opposition dominated by Hizbullah, which is backed by Syria and Iran.

The main point of dispute is the opposition demand for effective veto power in cabinet. The ruling coalition has rejected the demand.

 

Syria pledged during the Arab League summit it hosted last month to cooperate on ending the crisis but made it clear that it would not push its allies in Lebanon to allow the election of a new president unless their demands are met.

 

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem will attend the Kuwait meeting but may not be invited to attend the Lebanon get-together, Lebanese political sources said.

 

As a solution to the Lebanese crisis seems to be still out of reach, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch warned on Monday that Beirut might headed toward a “hot summer.”

 

“I fear that the Lebanese might face a hot summer, similar to the summer of 2006,” which saw the devastating war with Israel, Welch said during a press conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

 

He added that the best solution for Lebanon should come from the Lebanese themselves.

 

Welch also denied any US intentions to resort to military force against Iran over that country”s nuclear program.

“We are supporting interna-tional efforts to impose economic sanctions on Iran and to isolate it in order to press on it to change its ways,” he said.

 

“However, the option of a military attack on Iran is still open to any president who comes to the White House,” Welch added.

 

Also on Monday, Saudi Arabia urged feuding factions in Lebanon to pledge allegiance to their own country and to resist attempts to make them prey to foreign influence.

 

“The kingdom … calls upon all the Lebanese to work to form one Lebanese front that would owe allegiance to no one except Lebanon,” the government said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by King Abdullah.

Such a united front “would have the ability to overcome … new hegemonic attempts that the country is facing,” said the statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

 

The statement added that such attempts “are aimed at making Lebanon a link in a chain of a regional clout.”

All of the countries backing rival parties in Lebanon routinely accuse one another, directly or indirectly, of interference in the country”s domestic political affairs.