By Wang Xin, Xinhua
Beirut : Lebanese political standoff climaxed in the fourth quarter of 2007 as a parliamentary session failed to convene seven times to elect a new president to succeed Emile Lahoud who stepped down on Nov. 24, leaving the presidency vacant for the past two weeks.
Misfortunes never come singly. The country also witnessed a more-than-three-month conflict between Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants, the bloodiest internal violence since the end of 1975-1990 civil war.
Power Struggle leaves presidency vacuum
Lebanon has been locked in a political impasse caused by a power struggle between the Western-backed governing coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition backed by Syria, facing its worst internal crisis since the end of civil war.
A planned parliamentary session on Friday was postponed for a seventh time to Dec. 11, failing again to elect a replacement for Emile Lahoud and leaving the presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, vacant for the past two weeks.
As a hard-won compromise, the ruling coalition and the opposition have agreed in principle to give the post to Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman.
But they are still at odds on how to amend the constitution to allow for his election and over the make-up of a new cabinet.
According to Lebanon’s constitution, a senior public servant has to stand down from his post two years ahead of running for the presidency.
Gen. Suleiman, 59, has held his post since 1998. He is seen as a neutral figure in the country where nearly every politician is considered either in the pro- or anti-Syrian camp.
Lebanese parliament members are reportedly preparing a petition requesting an amendment of Article 49 of the constitution to allow the election of Suleiman, according to local media.
The petition, if approved, will have to go to cabinet for endorsement. But local analysts said this move could face obstacles since Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the opposition do not recognize the current government led by Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, saying it is illegitimate since six Shiite ministers resigned last November.
Therefore, they forecasted that the presidential vacuum will last “for a while” to give politicians time for “finding way out.”
Camp conflict leaves huge casulties and damages
A several-month-long confrontation between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon have claimed lives of more than 500 people, making it the bloodiest violence since the end of 1975-1990 civil war.
The battle broke out on May 20 when the police raided a suspected hide-out linked to Fatah al-Islam, which holed up in Nahr al-Bared camp, located north of the city of Tripoli, some 90 km north of the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
In response, Fatah al-Islam fighters overran an army checkpoint outside Nahr al-Bared, killing 33 soldiers. The Lebanese government listed Fatah al-Islam as a terrorist network aimed at destabilizing Lebanon.
The violence came to an end on Sept. 2 when the Lebanese army finally took control of the camp.
During the clashes, at least 169 soldiers, 287 insurgents and 47 civilians had been killed and about 31,000 refugees fled the camp.
Virtually every building in the old part of the camp had been reduced to rubble, while in the new part, about 65 percent of buildings could be repaired, Karen Abu Zayd, the commissioner general of the UN’s Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA), told a press conference in Beirut on Nov. 13.
UNRWA had received 26 million U.S. dollars for the rehabilitation program and had spent up to 8 million dollars so far, said Abu Zayd.
Haze of assassination vestures politicians
Like the past several years, the year 2007 was still vestured by haze of political assassination. Lebanon has been rocked by a series of blasts, which started with an assassination attempt against Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade on Oct. 1, 2004.
The last was on Sept. 19, when a car bomb killed lawmaker Antoine Ghanem – a member of the anti-Syrian March 14 coalition which secured its parliamentary majority in 2005 elections. The powerful explosion in eastern Beirut also killed eight others and wounded 92 others.
Ghanem, 64, was the eighth member of the anti-Syrian majority to be assassinated since the murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri in 2005.
Since then, more than 40 anti-Syrian parliament members have moved into the fortified Inter Continental Phoenicia Hotel on Beirut’s seaside to avoid a similar fate.
Three months before Ghanem’s assassination, anther pro-government lawmaker Walid Eido was killed by a car bomb.
On June 13, Eido’s car was ripped through by a bomb as he drove from a seaside sports club in western Beirut. The blast also killed his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.
The March 14 majority bloc led by Saad Hariri, son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, accused Syria of killing the anti-Syrian figures, but Syria has denied any involvement in it.
Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February 2005. His death sparked massive protests in Lebanon. Under mounting international pressure, Syria withdrew its forces from Lebanon in April 2005, ending a decades-long military presence there.