 |
| 25/05/2008 Lebanese lawmakers gathered to elect army Chief Michel Suleiman as president on Sunday in a first step towards ending a crippling political crisis and ending the term of the vacant presidency seat.
Parliament convened amid tight security to vote in a much-delayed session being attended by 200 guests including Arab and Western dignitaries, following a deal hammered out Wednesday in Qatar between rival Lebanese politicians.
Parliament will hold two sessions today – the first to elect a President and the second to be devoted to oath-taking – and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will set a date for another session to approve electoral law amendment.
Presidency seat has been vacant since Emile Lahoud's term ended in November, and 19 previous attempts to get lawmakers together to elect a successor failed. Last Wednesday, the feuding sides finally agreed to elect Suleiman and form a national unity government, after five days of talks brokered by the Arab League in the Qatari capital.
Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and a U.S. congressional delegation arrived in Beirut to attend the election. The U.S. delegation is headed by Representative Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat of Lebanese origin. The foreign ministers of Syria, Iran, Saudi, Italy and France are also among the 200 notables invited and they arrived in the Lebanese capital to witness the event.
Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is due to address the 128-seat parliament on Sunday, and other guests including Mussa who helped broker the Doha accord.
"Attaining calm and security in this country is attaining calm and security on the level of the region as a whole," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters on arrival in Beirut.
Kuwait's Parliament Speaker Jassem al-Kharafi arrived at Beirut airport and was received by Speaker Berri. Al-Kharafi said efforts would be exerted to shepherd success of the Doha Accord.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner welcomed Sunday's vote, however he said, "We would have wished for things to proceed more smoothly, more democratically," Kouchner told reporters. "But this is Lebanon and we are happy nonetheless.
In nearly 10 years at the helm of the army, Suleiman managed to stay out of the political storm. But as president he will have to tread a fine line to keep the peace with the same neutrality. "I cannot save the country on my own," he told local media this week. "This mission requires the efforts of all. Security is not achieved by force but joint political will." A career soldier, Suleiman joined the army in 1967. He was appointed military chief in December 1998. He is married and has three children.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment