 Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon's most prominent opposition leader, said yesterday the fate of the country's Syrian-backed president should be decided after parliamentary elections in May. Jumblatt and other Lebanese opposition figures had called for Emile Lahoud to step down after last month's assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an attack they blamed on Syria. Damascus has denied any role. But the opposition, which is made up of several groupings, has sent mixed signals about when it wanted Lahoud to go.
| That's because they haven't been sure when they wanted him to go. If he'd stepped down when Karami did, that would have been fine. He didn't, so an even better course is to use him as a piñata until the elections, then kick him out along with his parliamentary faction. That's if the opposition can win the election, of course, and the country's going to be swarming with hard boyz amd boomers, courtesy of the ayatollahs, to see that doesn't happen. |
Asked if and when he thought Lahoud should resign, Jumblatt told reporters in Cairo: "It's not a priority now. The priority is elections, (and) a clear timetable for the withdrawal of the Syrians from Lebanon before the elections."
| Had the Syrians not pulled back, Lahoud would have been an even better symbolic target... |
"Then, after the result of the elections, we will see what will happen (about) the future for President Lahoud," he said. Key allies Hariri and Jumblatt fell out with Syria after it insisted last September that Lebanon's Parliament, where a majority of deputies are pro-Syrian, renew Lahoud's term for another three years. Lebanese officials say Lahoud is not considering stepping down. Lahoud called on Saturday for dialogue between loyalists and the opposition, a call which the opposition has dismissed. |