International Call Against Presidential Void
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11/22/2007
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed the importance that the Lebanese reach compromise. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a statement, expressed his country's support for Lebanon's independence, sovereignty and stability. He called for a solution on the basis of no winner no vanquished, which guarantees the interests of all parties. This as Lavrov called his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem, asking Damascus to help bring compromise to Lebanon. Lavrov also called UN Chief Ban Ki Moon and discussed the situation in Lebanon. For his part, Ban Ki Moon warned, at an informal General assembly meeting, that if the Lebanese do not agree on a new president by November 24th, a clash will most likely result. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that if Syria wants to improve its relations with Washington it will have to allow Lebanon to vote freely for its next president. And this vote, she added, ought to be carried out without foreign interference and certainly without any foreign intimidation.Rice said that she had discussed Lebanon on Wednesday morning with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, and the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Mussa. Separately, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called for a compromise in the standoff in Lebanon ahead of the presidential election. A statement issued by Prodi's office said that during a telephone conversation the two leaders warned against 'last-minute extreme decisions that would lead to new legal situations which could cause new divisions between Lebanon's political forces'. Prodi also called on Syria to attend an international peace conference between Israelis and Palestinians in the United States next week as a lasting peace process in the Middle East needed Syria's contribution and participation. |
