QATARI EMIR STEPS UP AS TALKS MAKE HALTING PROGRESS
By Hussein Abdallah
The Daily Star
May 19 2008
Lebanon
BEIRUT: Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani weighed in on
the third day of talks his country his hosting among opposition and
pro-government leaders from Lebanon, meeting separately and jointly
with members of both camps to try to bridge differences, mainly on
the issue of drafting a new electoral law for the 2009 parliamentary
elections.
Well-informed sources in Doha told The Daily Star on Sunday that
Sheikh Hamad has intervened and held talks with the rival leaders in
a bid to address every hurdle in the talks.
The sources said that Qatari officials are satisfied with the rival
leaders’ positive attitude toward the process. As The Daily Star went
to press, there were indications that an interim declaration might
be issued.
The sources added that the two days of talks have thus far focused
on an electoral law, adding that the shape of the new government has
yet to be discussed in detail.
Despite reports that talks may yet stumble over a demand from the
ruling coalition for clear guarantees that Hizbullah would not turn
its guns on them again and that the fate of its arms would be debated
in Lebanon soon, the sources said that the issue of Hizbullah’s arms
has not been put on the negotiations table in Doha yet.
Arab mediators clinched a deal on Thursday to end Lebanon’s worst
internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war, in which fighters
from Hizbullah and its allies, the Amal Movement and the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party, routed pro-government gunmen and briefly seized
parts of Beirut.
The fate of Hizbullah’s weapons is not on the agenda, but delegates
said Arab mediators were consulting on the issue with regional
powerbrokers including Iran, which supports the opposition, and Saudi
Arabia, which a leading supporter of the ruling coalition.
"This issue is not under discussion and is not up for discussion on
the table of dialogue in Doha," Hizbullah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan
said. "They are trying to raise this issue for their own private
calculations which are mistaken anyway."
Hizbullah’s chief negotiator, Mohammed Raad, on Sunday accused the
government of trying to "blackmail" the opposition by raising the
subject of Hizbullah’s weapons.
Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Fatfat said that there would be no
agreement unless the arms issue is addressed.
"The agreement we reached in Beirut includes discussing this issue
and the last clause of the six-point agreement says that all the
points are equally binding," he said.
But Amal Movement MP Ali Hassan Khalil denied that the six-point
agreement reached in Beirut had any mention of Hizbullah’s possession
of arms.
"The agreement speaks about enhancing the authority of the Lebanese
state, and specifies that this issue is not on the agenda of talks
and is to be dealt with later on after electing a new president,"
Khalil said.
Notwithstanding the sensitive issue of Hizbullah’s weapons, the talks
appeared to make headway on Sunday.
A six-member committee created on Saturday to lay the framework for
a new election law has made progress and was now working out the
details of how to divide Beirut.
Tashnak Party MP Hagop Pakradounian told LBC television that there
were major dif-ferences on how to divide Beirut, particularly regarding
the Christian constituency.
Reports from Doha said that the ruling majority has proposed dividing
Beirut into three constituencies – two Sunni-dominated and one
Christian – with the Christian constituency getting to elect only
four of Beirut’s 10 Christian MPs.
The capital’s Christian seats are currently distributed as follows;
four seats for Armenians, two for minority Christians, two for Greek
Orthodox Christians, one for Catholics, and one for Maronites.
Such a proposal was strongly opposed by the opposition amid reports
that the Armenian Tashnak Party, allied with the opposition, protested
leaving the four Armenian seats out of the Christian constituency.
Pakradounian also indicated that some parties from the parliamentary
majority were also against the proposal.
But former President Amin Gemayel sounded more optimistic when speaking
on the electoral law.
"I think we have resolved 90 percent of the hurdles facing the new
election law … We have some obstacles left regarding some electoral
constituencies," Gemayel said.
"Hopefully, by evening we will have published a joint vision. We have
to reach a solution in the end," he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Hajj Hassan accused the parliamentary majority of
doing the math before proposing its formula of a new electoral law.
"They want to know the results of the elections in advance," he
told LBC.
Meanwhile, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr
al-Thani had yet to win final approval on the shape of a new government
but had made several proposals, including one to split seats three
ways equally among rivals, delegates said.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told Radio Free Lebanon
on Sunday that he expected "today to be a decisive day" at the Qatar
talks that seek to end the 18-month political stalemate and facilitate
the election of a president after a six-month vacuum.
Moussa also said that he would visit Damascus after the Doha conference
concludes its discussions of the crisis.
The Hizbullah-led opposition wants more say in a cabinet controlled
by the anti-Syrian March 14 Forces.
The ruling coalition’s refusal to yield to the demand for an effective
veto power in the cabinet triggered the resignation of six ministers –
including all five Shiites – in November 2006, crippling a political
system built around a delicate sectarian balance.
Election laws have always been a sensitive subject in Lebanon,
a patchwork of religious sects where redrawing constituencies can
have a dramatic impact on voting results.
A deal would lead to the election of commander of Lebanese Armed
Forces General Michel Suleiman as president.
Both sides have accepted his nomination for a post reserved for a
Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system. –
With agencies
Bush reiterates call for other countries to side against Hizbullah
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: US President George W. Bush called on Sunday on
Lebanon’s neighbours and other nations in the Middle East to oppose
Hizbullah.
"We must stand with the people of Lebanon in their struggle to
build a sovereign and independent democracy. This means opposing
Hizbullah terrorists, funded by Iran, who recently revealed their
true intentions by taking up arms against the Lebanese people,"
Bush told a forum in Egypt.
He was speaking as rival Lebanese leaders were meeting in Qatar in a
bid to resolve a protracted political crisis that recently threatened
to escalate into all-out civil war.
At least 65 people were killed in six days of street battles between
pro- and anti-government forces that saw opposition gunmen led by
Hizbullah briefly seize control of large swathes of western Beirut.
"Hizbullah militias are the enemy of a free Lebanon and all nations,
especially neighbors in the region, have an interest in helping the
Lebanese people prevail," Bush added.