Rice rejects compromise to solve Lebanese crisis
Kouchner holds rare meeting with moallem
Daily Star | November 4, 2007
Compiled by Daily Star staff
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned on Friday against diplomatic moves to resolve the standoff between Lebanon's rival political camps through compromise. Rice's comments came as Lebanon's rival camps are trying to reach a deal over a successor to President Emile Lahoud, who must step down on November 24.
Parliament is set to meet on November 12 for the vote.
"I think there is a lot of talk right now about compromise," she told journalists on a plane taking her to Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders on how to deal with Kurdish rebels attacking from northern Iraq.
"There are a lot of discussions going on," she added. "That is fine, but any candidate for president or any president needs to be committed to Lebanon's sovereignty and independence, needs to be committed to resolutions that Lebanon has signed on to, and needs to be committed to carrying on the tribunal." She was referring to the Special Tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
She did not give names, but her statement appeared to be a veiled reference to a meeting between opposition leader MP Michel Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement, and MP Saad Hariri, head of the parliamentary majority.
Aoun met Wednesday and Thursday in Paris with Hariri for the first time since the crisis erupted November last year.
The French Foreign Ministry said it was not involved in the talks but stressed that France "supports all efforts aimed at encouraging dialogue between the different parties in Lebanon."
The year-long standoff between the opposition and the ruling majority backed by the West has made it hard to reach an agreement over the identity of the president and his political platform.
Many in Beirut fear that if Parliament fails to elect a president, Lebanon could end up with two rival governments and possibly violence, a grim reminder of the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 Civil War.
Rice, who will participate on Saturday in an Iraq neighbors conference in Instanbul, was also expected to organize multilateral talks on the political crisis in Lebanon, according to diplomats quoted by the Agence France Press news agency.
The meeting is likely to be held Saturday in Istanbul, where a two-day conference on Iraqi security will be held, the sources said.
Lebanon is not a participant in the Istanbul meeting.
Rice said she would discuss the Lebanese standoff Saturday with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who will also attend the Istanbul gathering, to send "the right message: that the March 14 majority should not be put in a position of having to accept either extra-constitutional measures or measures that would undermine the program that they stand for."
Kouchner met on Friday in Istanbul with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Moallem, in the first high-level meeting between the two countries since Hariri's assassination.
Former French President Jacques Chirac suspended high-level talks with Syria after his friend Hariri was killed. An initial UN inquiry implicated Syria, which denied involvement.
The Syrian news agency SANA said the two men agreed to improve relations between Damascus and Paris. It added that they discussed the Lebanese presidential election and that rival leaders should agree on a compromise candidate to be elected by the constitutional deadline. It also said that neither Paris nor Damascus have a preference for any candidate.
AFP reported that Kouchner warned Syria that the international community could not "remain indifferent" to the current political vacuum in Lebanon.
In Beirut, Telecommunication Minister Marwan Hamadeh said the Paris meeting between Aoun and Hariri paved the way for a possible agreement over a presidential candidate.
"The meeting was like a demining device: It did not clear the whole area but it increased chances for a solution," Hamadeh told Radio Voice of Lebanon Friday. He said he hoped legislators would be able to elect a president by the constitutional deadline to avoid a power vacuum. "The most important thing that we need to agree on is 'no to vacuum, no to street violence.'"
Presidential hopeful Butros Harb said that the talks between Hariri and Aoun were a positive development regardless of their results. "These meetings prepare the base for a national understanding that will facilitate this election and any future election."
The Central News Agency (CNA) reported Friday that both leaders would soon visit Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir - whose Church is heavily involved in brokering a deal - to brief him on the outcome of their talks.
An official close to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was quoted by the CNA as saying that Berri expects "next week to be crucial in determining the presidential election results."
Samir Geagea, who heads the Lebanese Forces, urged leaders to hold bilateral meetings which help ensure the presidential election.
"They should prepare for the presidential election by holding meetings like the Hariri-Aoun meeting and not by sending warnings and trying to block the election," Geagea told a delegation from the northern town of Besharri.
He also criticized proposals to form an interim government to take the reins of power until leaders agree on a compromise candidate. Former Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss had suggested earlier this week expanding Prime Minister's Fouad Siniora's government into an interim one that would serve until a president was elected. Hoss met on Friday with Siniora and discussed with him his initiative. Siniora also met with the representative of the United Nations secretary general, Geir Pedersen, and discussed with him latest developments.
