Presidential Vote Delayed as Mussa Leaves Lebanon

Source: Al-Manar TV, 9-2-2008
A parliamentary session to elect Lebanon's president has been postponed from Monday to February 26, the speaker's office announced on Saturday. Speaker Nabih Berri "has decided to postpone the session that had been scheduled on February 11 to elect a president until Tuesday, February 26," the statement said.
Berri's postponement was announced shortly after Arab League chief Amr Mussa left Lebanon after failing to mediate a solution to the protracted crisis. After failing again to end the stalemate despite a round-table meeting with feuding politicians, Mussa left the country on Saturday. "We did not accomplish the required progress but we will pursue our contacts until a new meeting is held in the second half of February," Mussa told the Lebanese daily As-Safir. "The situation is complicated and there is a lack" of trust between the two camps, he said.
The Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported that the ruling bloc told Mussa "they are not ready for a solution now ... and therefore he decided to leave."
Late Friday the ruling bloc, going on with its blocking for any solution, issued a statement accusing the Lebanese national opposition of "making new conditions, including on the make-up of the future government and who should head it" to block Mussa's mediation bid.
On Friday, quartet meeting between the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP General Michel Aoun and the head of the Future bloc MP Saad Hariri. The meeting was also attended by former president Amine Gemayel. The meeting, that focused on the Arab Initiative aimed at ending the Lebanese political crisis, was "fruitful but we need to proceed with another one soon in order to reach a consensus agreement", Mussa said after the meeting.
During the meeting at the house, General Aoun stressed on adopting Berri's proposal concerning a tripartite power sharing concept, insisting on pre-agreement on the forthcoming prime minister, the new army commander and directors of security agencies. The condition was rejected by the ruling bloc representatives.
Mussa, apparently upset by the lack of progress, announced that he would leave Beirut and stated that further talks are needed. However, Berri tried to salvage the mission later in the day and asked the Arab League chief to postpone his departure pending last minute efforts by the speaker, that have apparently failed to mend fences.
After meeting Berri late at night, then the head of the unconstitutional government Fouad Saniora and leaders of Feb 14, Mussa told Speaker Berri that the ruling bloc rejects tripartite power sharing concept and maximum concession it would offer was the lines of 10 seats for the opposition, 13 for the ruling bloc and seven for the president.