EGYPT: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo and comments on Arab League efforts to solve the political crisis in Lebanon

Record ID: 644616

  • Title: EGYPT: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo and comments on Arab League efforts to solve the political crisis in Lebanon
  • Date: 25th January 2008
  • Summary: (MER1) CAIRO, EGYPT (JANUARY 24, 2008) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ITIHADIYA PRESIDENTIAL PALACE VARIOUS OF EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK AND LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER FOUAD SINIORA AT MEETING SINIORA AT NEWS CONFERENCE REPORTERS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER FOUAD SINIORA SAYING: "I think we are waiting for Arab Foreign Ministers to meet (next Monday). We hope that the meeting will confirm the Arab initiative and stress the importance of and give priority to honouring the constitution and electing a president. In doing this, we will take away the tension from Lebanon." REPORTER TAKING NOTES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER FOUAD SINIORA SAYING: "We think that the Arab initiative is a very serious proposal based on real understanding of the Lebanese constitution and Lebanese democracy. It is because of this that we support it and we give priority, over any other issue, for the benefit of Lebanon and for the return of the benefits of the constitution to Lebanon, we must give priority to the election of a president, a president that all Lebanese factions support." MORE OF REPORTERS TAKING NOTES AT NEWS CONFERENCE LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER FOUAD SINIORA LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 9th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAD3FA4VNFXQOD65M4OZC5KR8F5
  • Story Text: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Thursday (January 24) threw his support behind an Arab League initiative to end Lebanon's worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
    Siniora said he was hopeful that a meeting by Arab foreign ministers next Monday (January 28) would achieve results.

    "We hope that the meeting will confirm the Arab initiative and stress the importance of and give priority to honouring the constitution and electing a president," Siniora told a news conference in Cairo after holding talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

    "We think that the Arab initiative is a very serious proposal based on real understanding of the Lebanese constitution and Lebanese democracy," he added.
    Lebanon's presidential election, which was scheduled to take place last Monday (January 21), was postponed until Feb. 11, the 13th delay of a vote blocked by the country's political crisis.
    Rival Lebanese leaders have agreed on army chief General Michel Suleiman as the candidate to fill the presidency, which has been vacant since Nov. 23 when the term of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud expired.
    But Suleiman's confirmation by the election in parliament has been held up because the anti-Syrian governing coalition and its Damascus-backed opponents are at odds over the make-up of a government that will take office after the vote.
    The opposition, led by Hezbollah, has threatened civil disobedience if the political conflict is not resolved, increasing the risk of violence if there is no end to a standoff that began in November, 2006.
    The crisis has also stoked sectarian tensions between Sunni Muslims loyal to governing coalition leader Saad al-Hariri and Shi'ite Muslims who back Hezbollah.
    The Arab initiative was agreed by states including Syria and Saudi Arabia, whose own rivalry has complicated the search for an end to Lebanon's crisis. Saudi Arabia is one of the foreign backers of the governing coalition.
    The Arab plan calls for the election of Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government and the drafting of a new law for a parliamentary election due in 2009.
    The opposition wants veto power in the new cabinet or an equal three-way division of the seats with the governing coalition and the president. The governing coalition, whose foreign backers also include the United States, has rejected the idea of giving the opposition veto power.
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