Doha deal on Lebanon is in sight

RIVAL Lebanese leaders are
close to agreeing a deal today to end 18 months of political conflict
that has pushed their country to the brink of a new civil war.
A
senior Lebanese opposition official at the crisis talks in Doha last
night said a deal resolving disputes over a parliamentary election law
and how to divide seats in a new cabinet would be announced today.
“We
are very close to the announcement of a deal,” Ali Hassan Khalil, an MP
and a senior aide to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said on the
sidelines of the Arab-mediated talks in Doha.
Delegates from the ruling coalition also said a deal was close.
The
conflict between the US-backed ruling coalition and the opposition led
by Hezbollah and backed by Syria and Iran has paralysed government in
Lebanon since November, 2006.
The Qatari-led negotiations in Doha
follow the Arab League’s intervention last week to end Lebanon’s worst
internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Agreement on the
election law and power sharing in cabinet where the opposition has
demanded a veto — would pave the way for parliament to elect army chief
General Michel Suleiman as president, a post that has been vacant since
November.
Yesterday, Arab mediators gave Lebanon’s Hezbollah-led
opposition a deadline until today to respond to proposals aimed at
resolving the political crisis.
Qatar’s Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs HE Ahmed Abdullah al-Mahmoud said the mediators had put
forward two proposals to break the deadlock between the US-supported
ruling coalition and the opposition.
“One of the sides asked for
one extra day to respond to these proposals ... and the committee
agreed to give a one day deadline till tomorrow,” Mahmoud told
reporters.
The negotiations in Doha, which aim to prevent Lebanon
sliding back into sectarian strife, follow the Arab League’s
intervention last week to end the country’s worst domestic fighting
since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Shia Muslim Hezbollah used its
military muscle to thwart a government attempt to limit its power,
briefly seizing parts of Beirut in fighting that killed 81 people.
Delegates
in Qatar said the governing coalition accepted both proposals to
overcome disagreements on sharing power in a national unity government
and changes to an election law.
“We are not the party that asked for the postponement,” government minister Ahmed Fatfat told Al Jazeera television.
Qatar’s
Prime Minister HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani spoke by
telephone with officials in Iran and Syria, both countries which
support Hezbollah, to try to help break the impasse, delegates said.
The
rivals were at a deadlock on Monday over the electoral division of
Beirut — the bedrock of support for Saad al-Hariri, a Sunni leader of
the US-backed ruling coalition.
The division of electoral constituencies will help shape the outcome of parliamentary polls in 2009.
Delegates
said the new proposals called for the immediate election of a
president, a cabinet in which the opposition had veto powers, a pledge
to avoid violence, and two alternative solutions to the election law
impasse. – Reuters