AMERICAN LEBANESE COORDINATION COUNCIL

“They should not be permitted to choose the next President for Lebanon,” Aoun insisted.

He said talk about electing a new head of state by a two-thirds quorum or a half-plus-one of MPs has become “like a dancing game.”

“…No. We do not choose Iran as a substitute for America nor Syria in place of America,” Aoun said. “Instead, we choose peace instead of civil war.”

“Otherwise I have already made a suggestion to appoint a transitional cabinet headed by army commander General Suleiman and comprising six or seven civilians.

“The goal of this cabinet would be to draft a new electoral law, hold parliamentary elections and pave the way for the holding of presidential elections.”

Lahoud was speaking ahead of a planned parliamentary vote this autumn to elect a new President, with the country’s pro- and anti-Syrian blocs in a deadlock that threatens to exacerbate ongoing political paralysis.

A successful vote requires the 128-seat house to muster a quorum of 86 MPs but this will require a compromise, as the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Fouad Saniora has just 69 MPs.

Only once a quorum is reached can the legislature proceed to electing a president, but even then the only hope for success is a compromise candidate.

General Suleiman has recently made statements suggesting that he might be prepared to be that person.

Lahoud said he would not ‘hand over power to the Saniora cabinet, “simply because I consider it unconstitutional and inexistent.”

Lebanon has been mired in a political stalemate since last November, when pro-Syrian opposition forces, led by Hizbullah, withdrew their six ministers from the government.

Lahoud has refused to recognize the government’s continuing legitimacy, and House Speaker Nabih Berri, Hizbullah ally, has blocked all legislative initiatives put forward by Saniora’s administration.

Lahoud was elected President in 2000 and had been due to step down in 2004, but the country’s then powerbroker Syria forced through parliament a controversial constitutional amendment extending his term for three more years.

This year’s election must take place sometime between September 25, when parliament is due to reconvene, and the November 24 expiry of Lahoud’s term.

Recent efforts by both the Arab League and France to broker a political compromise have come to naught.

The anti-Syrian majority has enough votes in parliament to propose a candidate but not enough to secure a quorum. In any case it also has to resolve its own internal divisions.

The Christian community is bitterly divided between those who support the majority, and followers of retired General Michel Aoun, who has made a controversial alliance with Hizbullah.(AFP-Naharnet)

Franjieh’s remarks on Kalam el Nas talk show on LBC television Thursday evening also included a number of other accusations.

Hamadeh swiftly retorted with a counter statement, saying that Franjieh’s words reveal sectarianism.

“It’s not worth responding to such language,” Hamadeh said in a statement.

He later told the daily An Nahar that a copy of Franjieh’s interview would be “immediately” submitted to the international investigation committee headed by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz “as evidence that could one day hold Franjieh responsible for taking part in crimes and assassinations organized by the Syrian Regime in Lebanon.”

“Let us all agree on electing a president on the base of consensus and a two-third quorum for the Parliamentary session that would elect the head of state,” Berri said.

In return for that, he declared, “The opposition would not want the formation of (a new government) or the expansion of the present government prior to the Presidential elections.”

After agreeing on the “principle” of his proposal, Berri said he would be committed to “launching consultations with all the sides to agree on the name of the forthcoming president.”

“The more we speed up the consensus approach the better. The sooner the better to end the sit-in (In Riyadh Solh Square), keep the turmoil away and avoid evil that hangs over the last 10 days” of the constitutional schedule to elect a new head of state,” Berri said.

“I am confident that we will reach consensus during the constitutional schedule on a president,” Berri added.

More details soon.

However, the U.S. Ambassador said that he reiterated to Berri Washington’s stand which adheres to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 of 2004 that called for the election of a head of state without foreign intervention and in line with Lebanon’s constitution.

Feltman also stressed that it is the responsibility of the Lebanese Parliament to elect a president without foreign intervention, including that of the United States.

He said it is not for the United States to name candidates, and expressed confidence that parliament would elect a president committed to Lebanon’s independence, democracy, sovereignty, unity and plurality.

Asked whether he supports the election of a new head of state by simple majority, Feltman said the United States supports the election of a new president in line with the Lebanese constitution, stressing that interpreting the constitution is up to the Lebanese. “This is your constitution, not ours.”

In answering a question as to whether the United States supports the election of a president from the March 14 alliance ranks or on a consensus base, Feltman said Washington does not want to get involved in what should be a Lebanese decision.

Feltman said U.S. aid in 2007 would exceed 270 million dollars, or five times more than that last year.

The under-equipped Lebanese army deployed to the border with Israel last year for the first time in nearly four decades after the devastating summer war between the Jewish state and Hizbullah.

And since May of this year, it has been battling Fatah al-Islam militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp at Nahr al-Bared on the outskirts of the northern port city.

Feltman said: “Our partnership includes the commitment of the United States to provide the (armed forces) with the supplies they need to battle — and conquer — the armed extremists in the north.

“We are supplying the Lebanese Armed Forces with the equipment, armament, and training necessary to protect Lebanon and the Lebanese people from threats foreign and domestic,” he said in a statement.

During his visit to Lebanon, Admiral Fallon also met with Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, who stressed the “need to adopt peaceful solutions to resolve the problems of the region,” according to a statement from the premier’s office.(AFP)

“There are precedents in this regard where Presidents Bashir Gemayel, Elias Sarkis and Rene Mouawad were elected at different venues,” Jumblat said.

“Yes. It is our constitutional right to meet as parliamentary majority to elect a new president anywhere we please if the doors of parliament were shut on us, as they were closed two months ago” Jumblat stressed.

He described the concern over electing a head of state with a two-thirds simple majority vote as a “constitutional innovation,” reiterating his rejection to constitutional amendments that would serve the interest of individuals.

Jumblat also brought to mind comments made by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on Tuesday in which he warned that boycotting presidential elections would be unfair and ruinous to Lebanon

He stressed that presidential elections should go on in accordance with the constitution, starting with a two-thirds simply majority vote “and then maybe” with half-plus-one of the members of parliament.

“But if a half-plus-one (vote) was adopted in the first electoral session, this is very dangerous,” Sfeir cautioned. “Because the other camp could claim this to be a violation of the Constitution which would prompt them to respond similarly.”

“As a result we would get two presidents, two governments, two Lebanons and so on, and this would be ruinous for the country as a whole,” Sfeir said.

The Patriarch reiterated that he was against constitutional amendments unless they are introduced to serve national interest, adding that a constitutional amendment in Lebanon takes place at every juncture “and this is bad.”

“Some came to say that maybe if there were consensus over the army commander then he would become a President which would require an amendment,” Sfeir went on.

“We said if the salvation of the country lies with a certain individual, then the constitution can be amended to rescue the country and not for a personal interest,” he emphasized.

The gun ships staged repeated air raids on Fatah al-Islam positions in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared where the army has besieged the extremist militants since May 20, he said.

The army had warned it would intensify attacks after Friday’s evacuation from the camp of the militants’ wives and children, a total of 63 people.

Palestinian mediators are now continuing to try to negotiate the evacuation of nine wounded Fatah al-Islam members from Nahr al-Bared.

One cleric told AFP the army has insisted that the wounded would only be evacuated when the remaining fighters, thought to number about 70, surrender.

Sheikh Iyad Abu al-Ardat, another member of the League of Palestine Clerics, told AFP that evacuees with Syrian travel documents have already left for neighboring Syria over the weekend.

He said evacuees with Jordanian travel documents headed to Jordan by land from Syria on Tuesday.
Those with Lebanese documents have stayed with relatives or at other Palestinian refugee camps in the country, he said.
The wife of Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi was staying at an undisclosed location known to Lebanese security officials, Ardat said.

The army has lost 148 soldiers since the confrontation erupted on May 20 when Fatah al-Islam attacked military targets in the north.

Nahr al-Bared was home to 30,000 Palestinian refugees when the fighting erupted with the Islamists, who claim ideological ties to Al-Qaida.(AFP)

Aridi said the government formed a committee to draft a report on recent information that Hizbullah had installed its own communication infrastructure south Lebanon.

He said initial reports has shown that the Hizbullah networks “went beyond (the southern village of) Zawtar Sharqiyeh … to reach Beirut and the suburbs of Beirut which are outside the security areas of the leadership of the resistance.”

Aridi said the government was “determined to protect the Resistance (Hizbullah) and the symbols of the resistance from the Israeli enemy but the information that we gathered do not follow this logic.” He did not give further details.

The daily An Nahar, however, citing cabinet sources, said Tuesday that a report prepared by a ministerial committee confirmed that Hizbullah had privately installed phone netwworks that have reached Dahiyeh, or the southern suburbs, as well as the Ring and Riad Solh districts in downtown Beirut.

The sources said the cabinet instructed Lebanese security forces to perform a “specific task” under which “appropriate measures” would be taken to deal with Hizbullah’s move.

They said the cabinet was considering authorizing a “security and technical team” to sever the phone network connections.

Saniora was quoted by a source as responding to Hizbullah’s act, which was considered a violation to Lebanon’s sovereignty, by sarcastically saying: “All we need is (Hizbullah) to ask a musician to compose a new national anthem.”

The issue of the death threats directed at the Saudi and United Arab Emirates ambassadors to Lebanon was also discussed during the five-hour cabinet meeting that ended late Monday.

An Nahar said that according to information obtained by the government, a third unidentified European ambassador has also received death threats in addition to a number of journalists via the Internet.

Cabinet members also tackled the issue of the Fatah al-Islam “terrorist network” and outcome of the investigation with Islamists of the al-Qaida inspired group who are in Lebanese custody.

Aridi said Lebanon has tightened security following these threats.

“Security measures have been increased … and all the security agencies are on alert … particularly after the latest threats,” Aridi said.

He said recent arrests of suspects in Lebanon “have helped the army and the internal security forces prevent dangerous acts by groups in several areas” across the country.

Saudi Ambassador Abdel Aziz Khoja, whose country is a leading supporter of Lebanon’s beleaguered government, left Beirut on August 17 in the face of attack warnings, a senior Lebanese official said on Saturday.

The Saudi embassy declined all comment but Khoja told the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat daily on Saturday that “there were threats against the Saudi embassy and against my person.”

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the UAE are key financiers of Lebanon and staunch backers of the Saniora government.

Khoja had been involved in efforts to broker an end to the political crisis with pro-Syrian factions that has paralyzed Saniora’s legislative agenda.

A member of the appointed Saudi Shura (Consultative) Council, Mohammad al-Zulfa, has pointed the finger at Syria, claiming that proxies of Damascus in Lebanon could be behind the alleged threats.

Riyadh and Damascus were recently involved in a tit-for tat tirade.

Lebanon has been hit by a wave of attacks in recent years targeting anti-Syrian politicians, most infamously the 2005 murder of five-time premier Rafiq Hariri, a billionaire businessman.(Naharnet-AFP)