Lebanese Leaders Reach Agreement in Doha Ending Crisis

Source: Al-Manar TV, 21-5-2008
Lebanese leaders reached an agreement in Doha early Wednesday to end a long-running political crisis. "An agreement has been reached," between the ruling bloc and the Lebanese national opposition, Amal Movement MP, Ali Hassan Khalil, told reporters.
"We have high hopes for the Doha Accord which will rescue us from this crisis. No one in the world can cure our wounds if we don't cooperate with one another," Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hasan told VDL radio in Beirut.
The agreement calls for electing Army commander General Michel Suleiman as president immediately, forming a government based on a 16-11-3 formula (16 for the ruling bloc, 11 for the opposition and 3 to be chosen by the president), adoption of the Qada-based 1960 electoral law with Beirut divided into three constituencies:
- The first electoral district comprising Ashrafiye, Rmeil and Saifi with five seats: Two Armenians, one Maronite, one Orthodox and one Catholic.
- The second electoral district comprising Bashoura, Medawwar and Marfa' with four seats: One Sunni, one Shiite and two Armenians.
- The third electoral district comprising Mazraa, Msaytbe, Ras Beirut, Mina el Hosn, Zaqa el Blat and Dar el Mrayseh with ten seats: Five Sunnis, one Shiite, one Druz, one Orthodox, one Evangelical and one for the minorities.
"We expect a (parliamentary) vote to elect a president on Thursday or Friday," Khalil said.
A senior opposition delegate told the Assafir daily that "there is no problem with the new government's Ministerial Statement which will underline the context of the current government's Statement, stress on the respect of international resolutions, tackle the issue of not using weapons to achieve political gains and stress on the commitment to the decisions reached during the 2006 dialogue.