Siniora banks on allies to help keep 'conflicts of others' at bay

by **Admin** Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:46 pm

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Friday that Lebanon was determined to overcome its crisis by electing a new president, forming a national unity government, and reviving the Lebanese state's paralyzed institutions.

"The Lebanese are willing and determined to overcome their crisis with the help of the Arab and international community," Siniora said at the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Dakar.

"Lebanon should no longer be an arena for the conflicts of others," he added.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said the "Lebanese people will continue their courageous struggle for the freedom and independence of their country."

"The road to freedom is a long one, but we will eventually succeed," Geagea added at a ceremony held in the US Congress, marking the third anniversary of the March 14, 2005, anti-Syrian protest.

Almost two weeks ahead of an upcoming Arab summit in Damascus, the US called on Arab states Thursday to think carefully about attending an upcoming Arab League summit in Syria amid tensions over a presidential crisis in neighboring Lebanon.

Plans by Damascus to host the summit on March 29-30 have been mired in controversy due to a Lebanese standoff between the Hizbullah-led opposition, backed by Syria and Iran, and the majority backed by the West and many Arab states.

"We're certainly never going to try to dictate who should attend one of these meetings," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"In contemplating whether or not they attend a meeting in Syria, it certainly bears keeping in mind what Syria's role has been to this point in not allowing a Lebanese electoral process to move forward."

Lebanon has been without a president since last November, when Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his mandate after the country's feuding parties failed to elect a successor.

Syria on Thursday officially invited Lebanon to the summit, a move seen as a bid to ease tensions with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, which had hinted it might boycott should Lebanon not have a president.

The invitation was addressed to Siniora, but there were doubts regarding whether he would accept.

"I would note that the invitation is addressed to Premier Siniora, who is, in fact, acting president," McCormack said. "Why, you might ask, is he acting president? That is because there has not been a presidential election in Lebanon."

In fact, under the Lebanese Constitution, if there is no president, the office's powers shift to the Cabinet as a whole.

McCormack stressed that "there's a lot of talk about forces on the outside that are in some way impeding that election from going forward," adding: "Many have referred to Syria as one of the culprits for that election not moving forward."

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said Friday Paris is standing firm on its position to support the election of a Lebanese president at the next parliamentary session, set to take place on March 25 after 16 postponements.

At the opening of the OIC summit in Dakar Thursday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal reiterated his country's backing of the Arab League initiative for settling Lebanon's political crisis and said he looked forward to an "effective Syrian role" to implement it.

Meanwhile, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said Thursday the Syrian invitation should have been addressed to "The Republic of Lebanon" and not "Prime Minister Fouad Siniora." He said Lebanon should boycott the summit in reaction to "Syria's obstruction of Lebanon's presidential election."

Social Affairs Minister Nayla Mouawad said that the invitation should not have been handed to resigned Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh but to the president, and since "there is no president now," to the head of Cabinet.

Sources from parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri's Future Movement told Lebanese daily An-Nahar "there is no reason for Lebanon to attend the summit as long as Syria is preventing the election of a new Lebanese president."

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt told As-Safir Friday the Syrian invitation was "smuggled" rather than delivered to Lebanon.