Syria hopes a president is elected in Lebanon before the Damascus Summit

 Source: NowLebanon, 11-02-2008
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem said that he hopes the deadlock over electing a new president in Lebanon will be resolved by late March when his country hosts the Arab Summit.
"We hope the efforts of Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa will bring about a solution in Lebanon leading to the election of a president of the republic before the holding of the Arab Summit" on March 29-30, he said.
"Syria supports the Arab initiative as an overall plan which would be implemented by consensus between the Lebanese," he told a joint news conference with visiting Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.
A political power struggle between the majority and the opposition, supported by Syria and Iran, has plunged Lebanon into its worst political crisis since the end of its 15-year civil war in 1990.
Moussa has been trying to mediate an accord between Lebanon's anti- and National opposition camps on electing a president, a post left vacant since former President Emile Lahoud ended his term in office on November 23.
The Lebanese parliament was to have voted on Monday to elect a successor, but the session was called off, as were 13 previous attempts that have failed since September because of a feud between rival MPs.
The Arab plan promoted by Moussa calls for the election of Army Commander General Michel Sleiman as president, the formation of a national-unity government in which no single party has veto power, and a new electoral law.