Arab League pushes plan to end Lebanon crisis
BEIRUT (AFP) — Arab League chief Amr Mussa met with Lebanese leaders Wednesday in a bid to persuade them to endorse a joint Arab proposal to end Lebanon's long-running presidential crisis.
"The (Arab League) initiative is clear and I will immediately get down to work because time is running short and we need to salvage the situation," Mussa told reporters on his arrival.
He said the Arab plan had received broad international backing and warned that Lebanon was at a "decisive stage".
The Arab initiative is based on a three-point plan that calls for the election of army chief General Michel Sleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government in which no one party has veto power and the adoption of a new electoral law.
Lebanon has been without a president since November 23, when Emile Lahoud stepped down with no successor in place amid a bitter power struggle between the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition, supported by Syria and Iran.
A vote in the Lebanese parliament to elect a new head of state has been postponed 11 times, and MPs are now due to convene for a fresh attempt on January 12.
The Arab League plan is the latest in a string of international proposals to end the stalemate which is threatening Lebanon's stability.
The Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has insisted on having a third of the seats in a new government so as to have veto power over key decisions, has given the plan a cautious welcome. The government, however, has given it its full support.
Hezbollah MP Mohamad Haidar said his party wanted to make sure that there would be "no winner and no loser" if the plan is adopted.
"We want to make sure that under the proposed formula, no party will be able to impose its decisions in the next government," he said.
There is speculation that if Mussa leaves Beirut empty-handed, Saturday's parliament session will be postponed like the previous attempts to elect a president, possibly until the spring.
After his arrival, Mussa held talks with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an opposition stalwart, ahead of a meeting with Sleiman later in the evening.
On Thursday, he is due to meet various political leaders, including Michel Aoun, Hezbollah's main Christian ally in the opposition.
Lebanon's former power-broker Syria, a key ally of the opposition, said the Arab plan had its full support.
"Syria will work to ensure the success of Amr Mussa's mission to get Lebanese parties to agree to the plan endorsed by Arab ministers," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told reporters.
King Abdullah II of Jordan also urged Lebanese leaders to accept the plan, saying it would be "a step in the right direction" to end the crisis.
Mussa's visit came amid heightened tension following a roadside bombing in south Lebanon on Tuesday that wounded two Irish UN peacekeepers.
Also this week, a man purporting to be the leader of an Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group which fought a deadly 15-week battle with Lebanese troops last year threatened renewed attacks against the army.
Lebanon's governing coalition charged that the threat posted on an Islamist website in the name of Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi and the attack on the UN peacekeeping force were aimed at torpedoing the Arab League plan.
