Lebanon rivals can agree, Italian minister says
Rival Lebanese leaders say they can agree on a new president but “everything could still go wrong,” Italy”s foreign minister said on Saturday.
Massimo D”Alema said talks to reach a deal before November 21, when parliament is set to convene to elect a new head of state, had hit a stumbling block because of Christian leader Michel Aoun”s insistence he should fill the post.
Both sides uniting behind a candidate to replace President Emile Lahoud, a close ally of Syria whose term ends on November 23, is regarded as vital to defusing a political crisis in Lebanon.
“The negotiations are hitting a particularly difficult point because there is a player who says “I am the candidate”. This is clearly a problem,” D”Alema told Italian reporters during a visit to Beirut, referring to Aoun.
“He thinks he is the candidate who can unite the country but, as an observer, it doesn”t seem likely to me.”
The Italian minister later toned down his remarks, telling reporters before leaving Beirut that Aoun was a significant figure in the Christian community.
“I urge him to have a flexible position and to be open to other candidates,” D”Alema said.
Aoun, a former general, is leader of the biggest Christian bloc in parliament and part of the Hezbollah-led opposition, which has been locked in a power struggle with the Western-backed governing coalition for more than a year.
The political conflict is Lebanon”s worst internal crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Many fear violence could erupt without a deal on the presidency, which is reserved for a Maronite Christian according to the country”s sectarian power-sharing system.
LIST OF CANDIDATES
The head of the Maronite church has given a list of candidates to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a leading member of the opposition, and majority leader Saad al-Hariri.
They are then expected to choose.
“I have been told by Berri and Hariri that it is possible to find an agreement on one of the personalities on the list, even though I am not sure they are thinking of the same person,” D”Alema said.
“The ingredients of a deal are there but then everything could still go wrong.”
Lebanese political sources say the list includes Aoun — the opposition”s declared candidate — and two figures supported by the governing coalition.
But the consensus figure is expected to be one of three moderate candidates named by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. They are parliamentarian Robert Ghanem, former central bank governor Michel Khoury and former minister Michel Edde.
“My impression is that the consensus solution can be found,” Massimo D”Alema said.
The candidate will be Lebanon”s first new president since Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon in 2005. Damascus controlled Lebanese politics until the withdrawal.
Picture: Italy”s Foreign Minister Massimo D”Alema makes a speech to U.N. peacekeepers at an Italian U.N. base in the village of Maaraka, south of Lebanon, October 20, 2007. Rival Lebanese leaders say they can agree on a new president in a step seen as vital to defusing a deep political crisis but “everything could still go wrong”, Italy”s foreign minister said on Saturday. (Hussein Malla/Pool/Reuters)