BEIRUT, 27 August 2004 — The controversy over a possible change to the Lebanese constitution to allow Syria’s favorite President Emile Lahoud to stand for re-election deepened yesterday with Washington and opposition figures joining the debate. The United States came out against another term for Lahoud, a close ally of Damascus, saying Lebanese and not Syrians should choose the president.

Adam Ereli, deputy US State Department spokesman, said the United States “strongly supports a free and fair electoral process in Lebanon. That means one that is conducted according to the established Lebanese constitution.

“That constitution provides for a new president every six years, selected by parliament,” said Ereli. “It is our view that no outside country should interfere in this process, but as a matter of policy the United States does not take a position on individual candidates... The decision of who is the president of Lebanon is a decision for the Lebanese people — not for the Syrians, not for the Americans, not for anybody else.”

There was even stronger criticism from opposition deputy Bassem Sabeh, considered a moderate. “Lahoud is not fit to be a candidate because the constitution forbids him from seeking two successive mandates,” he said, denouncing a parliamentary “mafia” which he said had “succeeded in staging a coup d’etat against the democratic system by putting before Parliament a poisoned chalice that deputies will be forced to drink from.”

Lahoud, whose term of office runs out on Nov. 24, has made it clear he is willing to stand for another term as Damascus wishes. “If a parliamentary majority wishes to bestow this mission upon me again, then I am ready to accept,” he said on Tuesday.

In a defiant show of strength, Syrian President Bashar Assad yesterday received Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who will have to steer any constitutional amendment through the house, and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, one of Lahoud’s fiercest critics. But Bashar has canceled a planned meeting with influential Druze deputy Walid Jumblatt, after learning that, according to those close to him, Jumblatt “will not change his hostile attitude to (Lahoud’s) re-election one iota”.

On his return from Damascus and talks with Bashar, Elie Ferzli, Berri’s deputy, told AFP yesterday: “All options remain open.” But MP Nicolas Fattouche considered the possibility of Lahoud being re-elected “a constitutional crime” and accused Lahoud “of preparing in secret a package of constitutional amendments in violation of the (Islamic-Christian) co-existence pact and without any consensual basis.”

In a rare show of unity, Lebanon’s Sunni and Shiite Muslim muftis have also expressed opposition to an amendment to the constitution, but certain Muslim backbench figures, among them Nagib Mikati and Nasser Qandil have applauded Lahoud’s “courage”.

In an unrelated development, Syrian Kurdish parties accused Damascus yesterday of continuing a wave of arrests of Kurds that began during ethnic violence in March and which they say has been followed by torture of detainees. Hundreds of Kurds were detained across the country in the immediate aftermath of riots that erupted in largely Kurdish parts of northern Syria in March, leaving about 30 people dead. Most detainees were later released.

But a statement from Syrian Kurdish parties accused authorities of more arrests this month, and an official of one party said relatives of detainees feared they would die of torture. “During this month, August, over 20 young Kurdish men and women were arrested across Kurdish areas, such as Kameshli, Ras Al-Ayn,” Hassan Saleh, secretary-general of Syria’s small but active Yikiti Kurdish party, told Reuters by telephone.