|
*
Hezbollah sets resolution terms
BBC News, UK,
January 4, 2008
The Lebanese
opposition group Hezbollah has said openly that it will not
allow a president to be elected unless it gets a third of
the cabinet seats.
This would give
Hezbollah and its allies a veto over key decisions.
The Hezbollah
leader, Hassan Nasrallah, blamed the US for obstructing a
solution to Lebanon's political crisis by opposing such a
move.
The
western-backed Lebanese government has repeatedly rejected
the opposition's demand for powers of veto.
The government
has proposed reforming the cabinet to give the president a
casting vote.
Hezbollah and
its allies have been demanding a third of the cabinet seats
since the 2006 war with Israel - which Hezbollah regards as
a victory - but until now they had not publicly linked the
issue to a presidential vote.
Druze leader
Walid Jumblatt, who is aligned with the government, said
Hezbollah was making impossible demands and was more loyal
to Syria and Iran than to Lebanon.
Political
paralysis
The dispute
between the government and opposition has left Lebanon
without a president for more than five weeks.
A parliamentary
session to elect a president was postponed for the 11th time
on 28 December, and is now due to begin on 12 January.
Government and
opposition agree on that the next president, traditionally a
Maronite Christian and elected by parliament, should be the
head of the army, Gen Michel Suleiman.
But they
disagree over the shape of a future government.
The wider
political crisis has paralysed the government and parliament
for more than a year, and spilled over into armed clashes
and political assassinations.
Long interview
Sheikh
Nasrallah's comments came in an interview with a private
Lebanese TV station, and were aired simultaneously by
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV.
"A solution
lies in a partnership through a constitutional guarantee
(and) through a veto power for the opposition, which
represents more than half of the Lebanese people," he said.
"As long as
there is a US decision not to give the opposition a veto
power, this means there won't a presidential election," he
said.
"[The
government] wants to fully control authority and rejects
partnership with the other party," Sheikh Nasrallah said. |
