Syria Stands by Lebanese Allies: France distraught: Lebanon in Continued Crisis
Posted by Joshua on Monday, December 31st, 2007
France is boycotting Syria until Syria pressures its Lebanese allies to accept the agreed upon candidate for President of Lebanon, Michel Suleiman. Syria and Lebanese opposition forces demand a greater share of the cabinet the new president would construct. Some are talking about renegotiating Taif, the constitutional arrangement that is seen by many of the opposition to be unfair.
Syria has a community of interest with Hizbullah and Aoun to demand a greater share in the cabinet – a blocking third. Syria cannot order Hizbullah to give up its gains or to leave itself vulnerable in a new government. Hizbullah claims that it helped 11 parliament members of the Hariri bloc to gain their seats in 2005 elections in a deal with Jumblat and Hariri that the two later went back on.
Both Hizbullah and Aoun believe they are the winners of recent wrangling within Lebanese politics and want those winnings reflected in a new government. (I am off to NYC for New Years. Will write more about this on my return.)
Syria unwilling to pressure Lebanon allies: minister
Africasia, UK
Syria is unwilling to put pressure on its Lebanon allies in the crisis that has left it without a president for over a month, Information Minister Mohsen ..
Arslan attributes impasse to problems with Taif
Daily Star
Monday, December 31, 2007
BEIRUT: Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan said the crisis around the presidential election was directly tied to Taif Accord that ended the 1975-1990 Civil War. "Day after day, it is becoming clear to everybody that the presidential election crisis is certainly a by-product of the wrong implementation of the Taif Accord," he said at a news conference in his residence in Khaldeh on Saturday. Negotiated in Taif, Saudi Arabia, the pact was signed on October 22, 1989. Arslan stressed, however, that the opposition did not have plans to annul the deal. "We want to revisit the accord to achieve to major goals: putting an end to the fooling around with the Constitution and outlining the authorities of the executive power," he said. Arslan said that there were a number of problematic issues, which widened the gap between the opposition and the governing March 14 Forces. "The share of the opposition in the next government in addition to the fate and role of the resistance are crucial questions to be discussed even if they might cause a split among the Lebanese," he added.
France ends contact with Syria over Lebanese presidential election
The Associated Press
Monday, December 31, 2007
AIRO, Egypt: France is cutting off talks with Syria until Damascus shows its willingness to let Lebanon elect a new president, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Lebanon’s Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition have been unable to break a deadlock over filling the presidential post, empty for a month, and many Western countries have accused Damascus of interfering in the process — a claim Syria denies.
“I will not have any more contact with the Syrians until … we have received proof of Syria’s intention to let Lebanon designate a president of consensus,” said Sarkozy at a press conference Sunday in Cairo after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal called Sarkozy’s comments “surprising,” telling Syrian state television that Damascus was “working with France to reach an agreement on a president who represents all Lebanese.”
The French president spoke with Syrian President Bashar Assad as recently as the beginning of December to urge him to “facilitate” the election in Lebanon.
Sarkozy sent his chief of staff, Claude Gueant, to Damascus in early November, and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem earlier that month on the sidelines of an Iraq conference in Turkey.
“France has taken the responsibility of talking with Syria,” said Sarkozy. “One must recognize today that we cannot wait any longer, Syria must stop talking and now must act.”…
That process has been complicated by the opposition’s demand for a new unity government that would give it veto power over major decisions….
UN officials point an accusatory finger regarding Lebanon’s political crisis toward Syria, claiming that “Syria defeats every attempt at an agreement and pushes Hezbollah and its other allies in Lebanon to increase their demands all the time.” They say that Syria’s President Bashar Assad wants to demonstrate at any price that “nothing moves in Lebanon without him” and predict that as a result the crisis in Lebanon will continue for months to come.
The main problem, as the UN officials see it, is that not enough pressure is being placed on Assad. “He will only move if he senses a threat to the stability of his regime,” they said. “If the Americans were, for example, to send ships close to Lebanon’s beaches, that would send a clear message to Assad, but they’re not doing that.”
The Arab world is nearly the only means left for pressuring Assad. Next March an Arab summit is scheduled to convene in Damascus. The hope of many in Europe and in Washington is that prominent Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia will boycott the conference to send Assad a clear message telling him to stop interfering in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
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