BEIRUT, 8 November 2007 — Lebanon faces disintegration unless its rival leaders solve their political conflict, the country’s influential Maronite Christian bishops warned yesterday. A power struggle between rival factions is now focused on the fate of presidency. The term of Emile Lahoud, the pro-Syrian incumbent, ends at midnight on Nov. 23.
Parliament is due to meet on Monday to elect his successor. But the vote, already postponed twice, will be delayed again unless there is a deal between the anti-Syrian governing coalition, backed by the United States, and the opposition supported by Damascus and Tehran, political sources said.
Failure to agree on a new president will deepen a yearlong crisis that is Lebanon’s worst since the 1975-1990 civil war. Some fear it could lead to two rival governments and bloodshed. “The insistence of both groups on keeping their positions puts the whole country in a great crisis and complete paralysis,” the bishops said after their monthly meeting.
“This will obstruct not just the democratic system ... but will bring Lebanon to disintegration,” they said in a statement. The presidency is reserved for a Maronite in Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system and the church has held talks with rival politicians in effort to solve the crisis. “We urgently repeat our call for the victory of the spirit of harmony so the election happens on time and in accordance with the Lebanese constitution,” the bishops’ statement said.
Parliament was first called to convene on Sept. 25 to elect a new president but an opposition boycott prevented the required two-thirds quorum. A session scheduled for last month was postponed to give more time for talks between the factions. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a leading member of the opposition, will postpone the session again if there is no deal on a candidate acceptable to both the governing coalition and the opposition, political sources said.
Leading members of the governing coalition have said their MPs, who have a slim majority in Parliament, have the right to gather in the last 10 days of Lahoud’s term to elect a president without the two-thirds quorum. The powerful Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, has consistently warned against such a step.
Meanwhile, fires have destroyed dozens of hectares (acres) of woodlands across Lebanon, just weeks after earlier forest fires devastated mountainous parts of the country, an army spokesman said yesterday. “A total of 1,542 dunums (154 hectares) were destroyed on Tuesday and yesterday morning, in addition to the 807 dunums (81 hectares) burnt on Monday,” the spokesman who did not wish to be identified told AFP.
Emergency crews backed by army helicopters struggled to extinguish blazes that were still raging across southern and northern Lebanese mountains, as well as in the Shouf region southeast of Beirut, he said. The flames have destroyed forests of pine and oak trees as well as olive groves, valleys and woods, but there were no reports of casualties.
