Siniora in Egypt for talks with Mubarak over Lebanon crises

 

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora arrived in Cairo on Wednesday evening for talks with the Egyptian president on the presidential crisis after the failure of the Arab League initiative.

 
Siniora is due to meet President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday, officials said.

 

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa visited Lebanon twice in January and held talks with rival Lebanese political leaders, but failed to win their approval for an Arab plan to solve the impasse .

 

The three point Arab League plan calls for the immediate election of the president to be followed by the formation of a national unity government based on the constitution, to be followed by a new electoral law . A step by step approach for ending the crises .

 

Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down on November 23, 2007 at the end of his controversial term.

 

Lebanon’s Army chief General Michel Suleiman was nominated to be the next president , but the Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah-led opposition insisted on a whole basket of demands before they elect him. The basket of demands was rejected by the ruling majority as unconstitutional and “would handcuff Suleiman before arriving to the Presidential palace in Baabda “

 

One of the demands of the opposition was the power of a veto in the new government that will be formed after the election of the president , a demand that the ruling majority has rejected.

 

Moussa traveled from Beirut to Damascus last Friday to convince the Syrian president Bashar al Assad to give the green light to his allies to cooperate on ending the crises , but failed in this mission too.

 

The election was scheduled for Monday January 21 , but Moussa left Sunday after failing in his mission . The parliament session was postponed until February 11 , the 13th such delay since September 25, 2007 .Syria has publicly endorsed the Arab initiative but privately instructed its allies against it .

 

President Mubarak told reporters on Wednesday that the Arab plan “is the best hope for ending the Lebanese crises.”