Berri summons MPs to presidential election on Sunday
Source: Daily Star, 23-05-2008
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday scheduled a Parliament session to elect the commander of Lebanese Armed Forces General Michel Suleiman as president at 5 p.m. on Sunday, as key Arab and international figures prepared to head to Beirut to attend the session. Among the figures expected to attend are Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, European Union Foreign Policy Commissioner Javier Solana and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were also among the expected guests, according to local media reports.
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun contacted Suleiman on Monday to congratulate him ahead of Sunday's session.
"I entrust you with this delicate responsibility," Aoun reportedly told Suleiman, whose election would end a six-month presidential vacuum, making the army commander Lebanon's 12th president.
In remarks to the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, Suleiman said that "the Lebanese have finally chosen the path of life."
Suleiman thanked Qatar and the Arab League for their efforts to end the Lebanese crisis. Under Qatari and Arab League auspices, rival Lebanese leaders clinched a deal on Wednesday in Doha to end the political feud that had blocked a presidential election and had exploded into clashes earlier this month.
Following his election on Sunday, Suleiman is expected to start consultations with the different parliamentary blocs in a bid to name the country's next prime minister, who in turn will hold his own consultations with the same blocs in order to form the next cabinet.
Among the contenders for the post of prime minister are parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri and current Premier Fouad Saniora. Until now Saniora has reportedly insisted on leaving the post.
Former President Amine Gemayel said after meeting US charge d'affaires Michel Sison on Thursday that the ruling team back Hariri for the post.
In line with the deal secured in Doha, the parliamentary majority will get 16 Cabinet seats, which will be distributed among the different parties in the ruling team.
The opposition's 11 ministers will likely be distributed between Hizbullah, the Amal Movement and the FPM.
Aoun told Orange TV late Wednesday that he would be getting five ministers in the next government.
He also played down the possibility that Saniora would head the new cabinet.
Aoun's clinching of five seats in the next cabinet is likely to bolster his position in the face of his Christian rivals in the ruling team.
Faced with such a challenge, Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt may try to bolster the position of their Christian allies.
Tourism Minister Joe Sarkis, a member of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian faction allied with March 14, said on Wednesday that his party was looking forward to getting two to four ministers in the new government.
The status of the rival Christian parties in the next cabinet could have a big effect on how these parties perform in the 2009 elections, whose outcome will likely be determined by the Christian vote.
Hariri told the pan-Arab daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat that the parliamentary majority had granted the opposition's demand for veto power in the new cabinet because the opposition can no longer block the formation of the international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri. "We initially refused to give them veto power because of the international tribunal. Had we given them veto power back then, there wouldn't have been a tribunal today," he said.
Commenting on the Doha accord, Hariri said that Saudi Arabia had played an essential role in facilitating the agreement.
Hariri visited Riyadh on Wednesday following the end of the talks in Doha.
Saniora on Thursday also contacted Saudi King Abdullah and thanked him for Saudi Arabia's backing of the agreement.
Also on Thursday, the UN Security Council was expected to meet to issue a presidential statement in support of the Doha agreement.
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday scheduled a Parliament session to elect the commander of Lebanese Armed Forces General Michel Suleiman as president at 5 p.m. on Sunday, as key Arab and international figures prepared to head to Beirut to attend the session. Among the figures expected to attend are Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, European Union Foreign Policy Commissioner Javier Solana and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were also among the expected guests, according to local media reports.
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun contacted Suleiman on Monday to congratulate him ahead of Sunday's session.
"I entrust you with this delicate responsibility," Aoun reportedly told Suleiman, whose election would end a six-month presidential vacuum, making the army commander Lebanon's 12th president.
In remarks to the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, Suleiman said that "the Lebanese have finally chosen the path of life."
Suleiman thanked Qatar and the Arab League for their efforts to end the Lebanese crisis. Under Qatari and Arab League auspices, rival Lebanese leaders clinched a deal on Wednesday in Doha to end the political feud that had blocked a presidential election and had exploded into clashes earlier this month.
Following his election on Sunday, Suleiman is expected to start consultations with the different parliamentary blocs in a bid to name the country's next prime minister, who in turn will hold his own consultations with the same blocs in order to form the next cabinet.
Among the contenders for the post of prime minister are parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri and current Premier Fouad Saniora. Until now Saniora has reportedly insisted on leaving the post.
Former President Amine Gemayel said after meeting US charge d'affaires Michel Sison on Thursday that the ruling team back Hariri for the post.
In line with the deal secured in Doha, the parliamentary majority will get 16 Cabinet seats, which will be distributed among the different parties in the ruling team.
The opposition's 11 ministers will likely be distributed between Hizbullah, the Amal Movement and the FPM.
Aoun told Orange TV late Wednesday that he would be getting five ministers in the next government.
He also played down the possibility that Saniora would head the new cabinet.
Aoun's clinching of five seats in the next cabinet is likely to bolster his position in the face of his Christian rivals in the ruling team.
Faced with such a challenge, Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt may try to bolster the position of their Christian allies.
Tourism Minister Joe Sarkis, a member of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian faction allied with March 14, said on Wednesday that his party was looking forward to getting two to four ministers in the new government.
The status of the rival Christian parties in the next cabinet could have a big effect on how these parties perform in the 2009 elections, whose outcome will likely be determined by the Christian vote.
Hariri told the pan-Arab daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat that the parliamentary majority had granted the opposition's demand for veto power in the new cabinet because the opposition can no longer block the formation of the international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri. "We initially refused to give them veto power because of the international tribunal. Had we given them veto power back then, there wouldn't have been a tribunal today," he said.
Commenting on the Doha accord, Hariri said that Saudi Arabia had played an essential role in facilitating the agreement.
Hariri visited Riyadh on Wednesday following the end of the talks in Doha.
Saniora on Thursday also contacted Saudi King Abdullah and thanked him for Saudi Arabia's backing of the agreement.
Also on Thursday, the UN Security Council was expected to meet to issue a presidential statement in support of the Doha agreement.
