French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner returned to Beirut Tuesday in a fresh bid to spur feuding political leaders into electing a new president and ending a year-long political crisis.
Kouchner held talks talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri for one hour and left without making any statement to reporters. He also discussed with al-Moustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri "efforts exerted to hold the presidemtial elections," according to a statement released by the Hariri Press office.
The French official also met Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in Rabye, according to the National News agency.
Kouchner's visit comes ahead of a parliament session on Friday for lawmakers to elect a new head of state to replace Emile Lahoud, the former pro-Syrian president who stepped down at midnight on November 23 at the end of his term.
But there was wide speculation that the session -- the seventh since September -- would once again be delayed amid lingering disputes between the ruling majority and the pro-Syrian opposition.
France, Lebanon's former colonial power, has been leading international efforts to end a political crisis that emerged a year ago when six opposition ministers quit Saniora's government, plunging the country into disarray.
Kouchner's visit is the seventh by the French official to Lebanon in six months and comes as negotiations among Beirut's feuding politicians have homed in on the army chief, General Michel Suleiman, to succeed Lahoud.
The general was formally endorsed by the ruling majority on Sunday while the Aoun-led opposition has not made a firm commitment.
Aoun, himself a former army chief, said he would back Suleiman for the top job only if he held the office until legislative election in 2009, instead of the full six-year term stipulated by the constitution.
In any case, Suleiman's election requires a change to the constitution as Article 49 bars public servants from assuming the presidency within two years of stepping down from their posts.
Six sessions in parliament to elect a successor to Lahoud have already been postponed because of the bickering between the parties.
"Friday's presidential election is at the mercy of the political bazaar," the French-language L'Orient Le Jour, which is close to the ruling majority, said in a banner headline on Tuesday.
The pro-opposition daily Al-Akhbar also expected Friday's vote to be postponed. "The presidential election is once again facing complications despite the agreement between the opposition and majority on Suleiman," the daily said.(Naharnet-AFP)
Beirut, 04 Dec 07, 18:13
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