Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Arab League chief says effort to end Lebanese crisis has neither succeeded nor failed | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55285521
Caption:

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa gestures during a news conference in the Government House in Beirut, Lebanon, 23 December 2006 (EPA)


Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa gestures during a news conference in the Government House in Beirut, Lebanon, 23 December 2006 (EPA)

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa gestures during a news conference in the Government House in Beirut, Lebanon, 23 December 2006 (EPA)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – The head of the Arab League on Saturday said efforts to reach a solution to Lebanon’s political crisis have not succeeded but did not rule out future negotiations among rival factions.

Amr Moussa also urged rival Lebanese leaders to avoid triggering further escalation of the tension and warned that Lebanon was at “a dangerous crossroads.” “I leave to the factions in Lebanon a table full of proposals to find a solution to the crisis,” Moussa told reporters in the capital, Beirut, after four days of talks with allies aligned with the militant group Hezbollah and the U.S.-backed government. “I can’t say that we have succeeded, but also we did not fail,” he said.

Moussa said the Arab League initiative had produced “a framework for understanding on sticking points.” “Therefore, solutions are there and the road is clear,” he said, urging rival factions to resume talks.

Tensions among rival groups erupted when six pro-Hezbollah Cabinet ministers resigned last month after Prime Minister Fouad Siniora rejected their demand for a new national unity government.

Hezbollah’s supporters have been staging massive protests and ongoing sit-ins in downtown Beirut, a few meters from Siniora’s office, as part of their effort to force him to resign, but the Western-backed premier has refused to step down.

The Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies are demanding a national unity government which would give them veto power over major government decisions. However, Siniora and his anti-Syrian supporters reject Hezbollah’s demands, calling the campaign and the ongoing protests since Dec. 1 a Syria-backed coup.

Siniora has been living at his office complex in central Beirut amid a tight security cordon near the thousands of Hezbollah supporters and allies camping nearby.

Shortly after Moussa left Beirut for Cairo, hundreds of veiled Shiite Muslim women and other Hezbollah’s supporters, shouted, “Siniora, get out.” They waved Lebanese flags as they stood in front of layers of barbed wires and barricades manned by soldiers a few meters from Siniora’s office.

Though the Arab League secretary-general did not blame either side for not reaching a solution, he urged all parties to remain calm and said he may return to Beirut for more talks after New Year’s.

Moussa stressed that the absence of contacts between pro- and anti-Syrian Lebanese factions was hindering an end to growing political and sectarian tensions that are threatening to tear the country apart. “Contacts among various leaders are nonexistent, something that makes reaching an understanding very difficult,” he said.

Ahead of Moussa’s visit, Hezbollah and its allies warned that they would press for early parliamentary elections after the New Year’s holiday if the Arab League mediation failed to meet the opposition’s demand for a national unity government that would give them Cabinet veto power on key decisions.

Former minister Suleiman Franjieh, a key member of the opposition, said blocking main roads in Beirut was among measures considered after the New Year’s holiday. “There is the (Beirut) airport, the main roads, the port and civil disobedience. Everything we will carry out after the New Year will be within the democratic framework,” Franjieh said in a statement.

After two days of marathon talks in Beirut last week, Moussa managed to get pro-government and opposition parties to agree on the outlines of a national unity Cabinet in which major decisions could be taken only by consensus. He also said the two sides agreed to the creation of an independent committee to study an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Many blame Syria for Hariri’s assassination, but Damascus has denied the charge. But the rival factions did not bridge other differences.

Lebanon’s political crisis also extends beyond its borders. The United States has accused Iran and Syria of seeking to undermine the Siniora government and stability in the region, while Hezbollah accuses the prime minister of being a Washington puppet.

Moussa said after visiting Syria on Thursday that he received support from President Bashar Assad for the Arab mediation efforts. He also said he also received support from the Saudi and Egyptian governments, as well as other Arab leaders. Iran has also backed Moussa’s initiative.

A Lebanese man holds a mortar shell, among munitions which are displayed at the Lebanese police headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 22, 2006 (AP)

A Lebanese man holds a mortar shell, among munitions which are displayed at the Lebanese police headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 22, 2006 (AP)

Munitions are displayed at the Lebanese police headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, as a man holds what are said to be electronic fuses, Dec. 22, 2006 (AP)

Munitions are displayed at the Lebanese police headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, as a man holds what are said to be electronic fuses, Dec. 22, 2006 (AP)