Berri: Syria, Saudi Arabia Hold Key To Lebanon Solution
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Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday urged the Arab League to clarify its initiative on ending Lebanon's presidential crisis, insisting that Syria and Saudi Arabia held the key to a solution.
'Without Syria and Saudi Arabia, there will be no resolution to the Lebanese crisis,' Berri said in an exclusive interview with AFP. 'But I can't believe that the Arabs would not put their differences aside for the sake of Lebanon.
The two countries have had strained relations since the February 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's billionaire ex-prime minister and a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
Syria has been accused of orchestrating the killing but has denied involvement.
'Those who say that the situation in Lebanon can remain like this for months or until next year's legislative elections are seeking to destroy Lebanon,' Berri, a key opposition member said.
He said that the Arab initiative as being touted by Arab League chief Amr Moussa was bound to fail as it did not address the demands of the opposition.
'The Arab League ministers must meet again and come up with a clearer statement because their last statement doesn't make sense unless you interpret it the way I have,' Berri said.
The Arab initiative is based on a three-point plan that calls for the election of army chief General Michel Suleiman 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.
Moussa said that the plan means that neither the majority nor the opposition would have the upper hand in the new government and has refused to say how many seats each side would get in the new cabinet.
Berri said his reading of the plan means that the new 30-member cabinet would be divided equally between the majority, the Hizbullah-led opposition and the new president.
The majority, however, rejects such a scenario.
'If the Arab League ministers don't agree with my explanation of their plan, they should meet again and come up with a new explanation,' Berri said.
Moussa later Saturday was due back in Beirut from Damascus, where he held talks with officials there on ending the crisis, Lebanon's worst since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down on November 23 with no elected successor because of the standoff between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps.
Berri has scheduled 12 sessions in parliament since September for lawmakers to elect a new head of state but all have been postponed despite intense international pressure to end the crisis.
A new session is scheduled on Monday but it is widely believed that it will also be postponed. |
