Siniora plans to walk softly until presidential seat is filled
Lebanon”s prime minister said Monday his government would not make any “provocative,” moves in a sign that he would try to contain a political crisis in the divided country. Premier Fouad Siniora”s Cabinet assumed the powers of head of state Saturday after the term of former President Emile Lahoud ended with no agreement on his successor.
The opposition, backed by Syria and led by Hizbullah, disputes the legitimacy of the anti-Syrian government and says it has no right to assume the powers of president.
“The government will work so that its decisions are studied and nonprovocative and focus on political harmony,” Siniora told several religious leaders he telephoned on Monday, according to a statement released by his office.
Siniora urged the leaders to work “for calm, because tensions and escalation will not help the country but will instead intensify the crisis.
“The goal is the election of a new president,” the statement quoted the prime minister as having said.
Parliament is due to meet Friday in another attempt to elect the president. The vote has already been postponed five times because the main leaders have been unable to agree.
Although there has been no deal on Lahoud”s successor, the rivals have not carried out threats of unilateral action, instead containing the worst crisis since Lebanon”s Civil War ended in 1990.
The presidency was last left vacant in 1988-89. The crisis triggered one of the bloodiest phases in the Civil War as rival governments emerged.
Hizbullah and one of its allies, Amal, said the post should not be left empty for long.
Democratic Gathering leader Walid Jumblatt also called for an election as soon as possible to fill the vacuum and said disputable issues – including the weapons of Hizbullah and Palestinian factions, relations with Syria, the Occupied Shebaa Farms and demarcating the border with Syria – can be discussed during a national dialogue held later.
“Efforts should remain focused on electing a new president in order not to fall in vacuum for a long period,” Jumblatt told the weekly magazine Al-Anbaa, which is published by his Progressive Socialist Party. “This balanced and moderate president will protect our democratic system, which protects the opposition and the majority. All thorny issues can be discussed during a dialogue later.”
Phalange Party leader and former President Amin Gemayel urged Speaker Nabih Berri, who sponsored last year”s national dialogue sessions, to resume the round-table talks between rival leaders. The last session of dialogue was held a month before the July 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon and it has not resumed since. The next session was designed to discuss Lebanon”s defense strategy and Hizbullah”s weapons.
“An understanding on this issue would facilitate the presidential election,” Gemayel told reporters following a meeting with party members. “The problem is not Maronite-Maronite over the president but over two agendas for Lebanon.”
Gemayel also voiced concerns that presidential vacuum would soon become routine.
“What I fear is normalizing this vacuum, for it to become something normal and people will get used to it,” Gemayel said. “When in reality this vacuum symbolizes the deep divisions in the country.”
Christian opposition leader and head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun also discussed the presidential vacuum with several politicians, including former Minister Michel Daher, Maronite League chief Joseph Tarabay and a delegation from the Union for Lebanon headed by Massoud Ashkar.
Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea also discussed recent developments, including the presidential crisis, with Saudi Ambassador Abdel-Aziz Khoja.
“The only and easiest solution is the constitutional solution,” Geagea said after his meeting with Khoja. “All parliamentary blocs should head to Parliament and elect a president.”
Geagea added that the majority was committed to the list of candidates put together by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.
Sfeir met Monday with the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman, for talks on the security situation in the country.
Before he stepped down last Friday, former President Emile Lahoud had put the military in charge of the country”s security and all security forces under the command of Suleiman.
Suleiman said the extra security measures in Beirut and other areas were to secure the presidential election set for Friday.