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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Aridi: US did not impose any conditions and Berri knows this |
| 2007-11-19 |
| Lebanon's Information Minister Ghazi Aridi praised Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, "for assuming great responsibility to resolve the crises by submitting a list of candidates for the presidency." He urged everyone not to miss this opportunity and to elect a President of the Republic to strengthen the spirit of national unity and dialogue. Aridi said in an interview with the radio Voice of Lebanon : "Everyone was waiting for a word from Patriarch Sfeir and all claimed they wanted consensus. Now, and after Sfeir gave the list of presidential candidates there is no excuse in the world for the non-election of a new President of the Republic". Aridi also said " contrary to all the rumors that the media has circulated inside and outside the capital, the United States did not impose any conditions with regards to the election of a new president , nor did they name any preferred candidate for this post and Speaker Nabih Berri , who has met US ambassador Jeffrey Feltman on several occasions knows this " Similarly he said the French also did not impose any conditions or name any preferred candidate : "The French Foreign Minister asked Cardinal Sfeir to issue the list of consensus candidates so that the parliament could pick one of them as the new president." Hezbollah has accused the western countries of interfering in Lebanon's presidential elections. Lebanon is in the process of electing a new president to replace the pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud whose term expires on November 24. The election session was rescheduled 3 times but is now set for November 21, 2007. The Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah -led opposition has refused to attend the previously scheduled sessions because they knew the anti-Syrian parliament majority will win. The parliament majority has accused the pro-Syrian opposition of wanting a clone of Emile Lahoud as the new president to please Syria. Lahoud who is referred to as 'Syria's puppet' has sided with the opposition in its effort to overthrow the democratically elected government of Prime minister Fouad Siniora. |
| Posted by:Fred |