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Lebanon set for major changes

DUBAI: Lebanon’s long drawn political crisis appears to ending with the election of Army chief Michel Sleiman to the presidency.

General Sleiman is expected to be elected shortly as President in the presence of several foreign dignitaries, including Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa.

His elevation is the result of the Doha accord, thrashed after the opposition group Hizbollah smashed the pro-U.S. ruling coalition’s strongholds in west Beirut earlier this month.

Hizbollah television Al Manar described the accord — concluded after Qatar’s mediation — as an event which “put an end to all endeavours to strain the situation in Lebanon, not to mention U.S. promises of a hot summer in this small country.”

It added that the accord was “another episode in the series of U.S. frustrations in Lebanon, a worn chain that passed through different stages since before the July 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon.”

The AFP news agency quoted Ali Hamdan, spokesman for Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, as saying the Foreign Ministers of Syria and Iran will be among the 200 dignitaries who have been invited to witness the oath taking.

Mr. Berri belongs to the political party Amal — a key ally of Hizbollah. Iran and Syria have been Hizbollah’s chief external supporters.

Mr. Hamdan said a U.S. congressional delegation headed by Nick Rahall had also been invited. The Doha accord called for General Sleiman’s election as a consensus candidate, the formation of a national unity government in which the opposition has veto power.

It also envisaged the enunciation of a law for parliamentary elections, which are due next year.

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