Palace ready for Lebanon”s new president
Staff at Lebanon”s presidential palace, empty for six months, are feverishly preparing for the long-awaited arrival of a new tenant, mowing the lawn, cleaning windows and dusting chandeliers.
"Everything is ready – even the beds are made," said Naji Kozayly of the presidential media department on Thursday.
Presidential spokesman Rafic Chlala said no sooner had news of the Doha accord ending the presidential standoff been announced Wednesday than staff at Baabda got down to work.
"We had shut down the presidential wing but now it”s coming back to life," he said.
The commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman, is set to be elected president on Sunday following a breakthrough deal between the parliamentary majority and the opposition.
After his election, Suleiman, 59, will move into the so-called Baabda Palace, a modern-style building built in the 1950s southeast of Beirut.
The complex has been empty since November 23, when Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term with no elected successor because of the standoff between rival politicians.
On Thursday, however, the grounds were buzzing with activity as workers mowed the lush lawn on which every foreign head of state who visits traditionally plants a cedar tree, the national emblem.
Inside the palace, staff washed windows while others dusted the crystal chandeliers and the presidential chair. The 84 palace employees hurried up and down white marble hallways lined with Roman statues.
"The private apartments of the president and his family await their arrival," said Kozayly. "There are 20 rooms plus several bathrooms and kitchens." He said the wing, off-limits to the public, had been redecorated in a simple yet elegant style by Lahoud during his term.
In the private gardens is a pool installed by former president Amin Gemayel.
"I don”t know if Suleiman likes swimming, but Lahoud made great use of the pool," said Kozayly.
Chlala said the palace has been left empty on a number of occasions. "Construction began under President Camille Chamoun [1952-1958] but the palace was without a tenant until Charles Helou [1964-1970] moved in during the last year of his presidency as he preferred living closer to Beirut."
In 1976, then President Suleiman Franjieh was forced to flee the palace because of the Civil War.
In 1990, former LAF chief Michel Aoun, who had been appointed head of an interim government by Gemayel, was ousted from Baabda in a massive Syrian military intervention that sent him into exile in France for 15 years.
Aoun is now the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement.
When he moves into his new home on Sunday, Suleiman will be the fifth Lebanese president in its history not to be greeted there by his predecessor.