Army commander, Gen. Michel Suleiman salutes during a ceremony in the Christian town of Jounieh, Lebanon in this Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007 file photo. The largest bloc in Lebanon's deadlocked parliament has dropped its opposition to the army chief becoming the next president, bringing Gen. Michel Suleiman one step closer to being the new head of state and ending Lebanon's year-long political crisis, a lawmaker said Wednesday Nov. 28, 2007. Associated Press © 2007
Lebanon Lawmakers Back Army Chief
from The Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon November 28, 2007, 9:05 a.m. ET · The largest bloc in Lebanon's deadlocked parliament has dropped its opposition to the army chief becoming president, bringing Gen. Michel Suleiman a step closer to being the new head of state and ending a yearlong political crisis, a lawmaker said Wednesday.
The apparent breakthrough, announced by legislator Ammar Houry after weeks of political deadlock, came just one day after the Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., a meeting that Lebanon's powerful neighbor, Syria, had chosen to attend.
It had been widely expected that tension between the United States and Syria would ease after Syria's participation at Annapolis. That was expected to affect the Lebanon political crisis, because the Syrian-U.S. tension has, in part, played itself out through Lebanon's complex politics.
Suleiman is seen as a uniting figure, whom both the U.S.-backed majority in Lebanon and the pro-Syrian opposition — as well as outside players — can back. All sides appear to view him, at least for now, as a relatively neutral player who can guarantee that no side in Lebanon's fractured politics dominates the other....
Lebanon opposition sit-in enters second year
by Ines Bel Aiba
Published: December 01, 2007
BEIRUT (AFP) Hundreds of supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition marked in Beirut on Saturday, the anniversary of their open-ended sit-in to bring down the government.
They gathered in Riad Solh Square in the city centre where the opposition, supported by Syria and Iran, has a protest camp outside the offices of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
They waved Lebanese flags as well as the banners of Hezbollah and ally Amal, both Shiite groups, the Free Patriotic Movement of Christian leader Michel Aoun and a number of pro-Syrian parties.
"One year on the sit-in for national unity," said one placard. "One year on, against monopoly," read another.
The protest continues as Lebanon grapples with a dangerous political vacuum that has left the presidency vacant because of a standoff between pro- and anti-Syrian factions.
"The Lebanese nationalist opposition is ready for a settlement through a consensual president and a government of partnership," Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan told the rally.
http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2007/12/01/lebanon_opposition_sitin_enters_second_year/afp/
EDITORIAL: Ramallah-Annapolis via Beirut
By MIDDLE EAST TIMES
Published: November 25, 2007
Syria announced it will participate in the Annapolis Middle East peace summit called at the behest of the United States to try and revive the all but dead Palestinian-Israeli peace initiative.
However, Damascus said it would be sending its deputy foreign minister rather than the country's top diplomat, an indication that Damascus is not entirely satisfied with the agenda. Syria had pegged its participation on condition that the question of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel in June 1967 would figure on the agenda. This is probably one of the reasons that no official agenda has been established yet, with about 24 hours to go before the conference convenes.
And it's probably no coincidence either that the election of the Lebanese president, who's deadline expired midnight Friday, Nov. 23, has been postponed for the fifth time. This latest postponement gives the Syrians an extra card to play at Annapolis.
Upon leaving the presidential palace just before midnight – and with no consensus reached by the country's parliamentarians on who they could elect to be the next president –- Lahoud handed the task of maintaining Lebanon's security to the army.
The delay in Beirut serves the interests of Syria more so than anyone else in the region. It gives Damascus an additional bargaining point at Annapolis, something Syria's President Bashar Assad badly needs.
The Syrians realize they hold no aces other than the Lebanon card.
The danger is that plans can go astray and that Washington may not see the situation through the same lens as Damascus. The "temporary measure," decreed in Lebanon may end up lasting longer than originally anticipated. This sort of thing tends to happen in Lebanon. As was so adequately pointed out by Paul Khalife, a correspondent for Radio France International, the morning after President Emile Lahoud left the presidential palace in his dispatch: In 1948 the Lebanese were told that the thousands of Palestinian refugees flooding into Lebanon was "temporary." Sixty years later their numbers swelled to 400,000 and they make up 12 percent of Lebanon's population.
In 1990, at the end of the 15-year Lebanese civil war, tens of thousands of refugees were told they could return within a short while to their villages in southern Lebanon; it took 18 years to make that a reality.
The Saudi-sponsored Taif Accords in 1990, which put an end to the civil war, included a clause calling for the immediate withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. That took 13 years to materialize. The Lebanese presidential election which has been postponed five consecutive times was to take place at the latest Saturday, Nov. 24. This date, too, has been postponed by another week.
As the French radio correspondent pointed out, "the Lebanese have come to realize that in Lebanon only the temporary is permanent."
The one hope for a quick resolution of the Lebanese crisis is the inclusion of the Golan question on the agenda at Annapolis. The road to peace in Ramallah, Jerusalem, and Beirut needs to detour via the Golan.
http://www.metimes.com/Editorial/2007/11/25/editorial_ramallah-annapolis_via_beirut/3266/
Lebanon's majority names candidate (click here)
Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:55:38
Former Lebanese President Amin GemayelLebanon's parliamentary majority has formally declared the nomination of the army commander, Gen. Michel Suleiman, for the presidency. The announcement was made on Sunday by former President Amin Gemayel after a meeting with top leaders of US-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's coalition. "The decision was to put an end to the collapse of the state and in order to fill the vacuum in the presidency. For this the 14th March forces declare the nomination of Gen. Michel Suleiman and launch the required constitutional mechanism for that,'' said Gemayel. On Saturday Hezbollah's second ranking official, Naim Qassem, said that the Islamic movement holds Suleiman in high regard, hinting at his candidacy. Though the majority nomination of Gen. Michel Suleiman does not guarantee him the position, his emergence as a compromise candidate proposes a potential resolution to the conflict between the ruling party and the opposition party....
