AMERICAN LEBANESE COORDINATION COUNCIL

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, in a dialogue with reporters, also said the session could be postponed.

Geagea accused Parties that he did not name of seeking to block the elections.

MP Ali Hassan Khalil also said a postponement of the Friday voting session is “probable.”

Lebanon has been without a president since Friday, when Emile Lahoud’s term expired amid continued disputes between the Western and Arab-backed ruling coalition and the opposition, supported by Syria and Iran.

On Wednesday, MPs and politicians from both sides told AFP negotiations were now focused on General Michel Suleiman, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Khalil, who is close to opposition leader and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, said “the call for the session still stands, but it is most probably not going to take place in order to give more time for a consensus on … Suleiman or somebody else.”

MP Ghassan Tueni told reporters after meeting Berri that amending the constitution to allow the election of Gen. Michel Suleiman requires unanimous approval by all parties to the conflict.
MP Salim Aoun, a member of the Free Patriotic Movement of opposition Christian leader Michel Aoun, said “there is nothing new, so we cannot say that there will be presidential elections tomorrow.”

“Undoubtedly, there will be no election tomorrow,” he added.

Asked if the opposition would back Suleiman’s candidacy, he said “we have to study the majority’s intentions first, as I think that proposing Suleiman’s name is but a maneuver because their leaders have not yet taken a clear stand on that subject.”

The constitution currently bans senior public servants from seeking the presidency until two years after they have resigned from their posts.

The majority’s proposal to back Suleiman was made public by Ammar Houry, a member of am-Moustaqbal Bloc headed by Saad Hariri.

Houry said the majority was willing to drop its opposition to amending the constitution to spare the country further turmoil.

Aoun said that, “in any case, reaching an agreement over the army commander does not resolve the crisis because there are still many lingering issues, including the formation of the next government, the amendment of the electoral law and the arms of Hizbullah,” the anti-Israeli group spearheading the opposition.

Beirut newspapers on Thursday said naming Suleiman might be a consensual agreement to resolve the crisis, but would still face major political and legal obstacles.

“Suleiman candidacy for consensus … but consensus is taking time,” wrote the leading An-Nahar newspaper.

The daily said it feared the majority’s proposal to name Suleiman would be rejected by the opposition, “bringing back things to point zero.”

“At the same time, the candidacy of General Michel Suleiman has triggered a great constitutional crisis, as the constitution does not provide for such an unprecedented event,” it said.

Al-Moustaqbal, owned by Hariri, said the move “is an exit strategy to the presidential vacuum and builds up for a new phase.”

Suleiman, 59, was appointed nine years ago with Syria’s approval and is generally well respected among all the country’s factions.

He is credited for keeping the army united despite the upheavals that have shaken Lebanon since the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father, ex-premier Rafik Hariri, and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country after 29 years of occupation.

Five previous parliamentary sessions to elect Lahoud’s successor have already been postponed since September 24 amid warnings of civil strife in a country still reeling from the massive devastation of the 1975-1990 civil war.

The crisis, the worst since the end of the war, is widely seen as an extension of the regional confrontation pitting the United States and its ally Saudi Arabia against Iran and Syria.(AFP-Naharnet)