Last update - 00:00 20/12/2006
Iran may hold talks with Saudis on diffusing Lebanon crisis
By News Agencies
Iran said Wednesday it might hold talks with Saudi Arabia on ways to defuse a three-week power struggle between the Saudi-backed Lebanese government and the Iran-allied opposition.
"We may have contacts with the Saudi officials in the coming few days," Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Al Arabiya television in an interview.
He said Iran has invited Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa for talks with Iranian officials in Tehran in an effort to end the crisis.
"We believe the developments in Lebanon may lead to a comprehensive reconciliation if all friendly countries would cooperate," Mottaki said.
A Lebanese political source said Moussa had held talks in Beirut on Tuesday with an Iranian envoy, whose visit had not been publicized.
Moussa took sides in a long-running Lebanese argument on Wednesday, saying that pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud should remain in office until his term ends in November 2007.
Moussa has been mediating between Lebanon's rival factions to find a solution to the country's political crisis. But his statement was expected to draw fire from the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, which has been calling on Lahoud to resign for more than a year.
"The president has a term which must be completed," Moussa told reporters after talks with Lahoud. "There should be consultations and consensus on the next president at a later stage. But this does not mean that the president must leave his post."
The office of legislator Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, declined to comment. Other anti-Syrian lawmakers were also not available for comment on Moussa's statement.
Parties allied to Hezbollah have withdrawn from the Cabinet and staged daily protests in a bid to force the resignation of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government. Saniora, whose government is backed by the United States and Europe, has refused to step down and has accused the opposition of attempting a Syrian-backed coup.
The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, faced with the opposition's demand for a veto-wielding share in a new Cabinet, has called for priority to be given to the election of a new president to replace the staunchly pro-Syrian Lahoud.
Moussa arrived Tuesday on his second visit to Beirut in less than a week amid plans by the Hezbollah-led opposition to escalate its open-ended street protests against the Saniora government.
Ahead of Moussa's visit, Hezbollah and its Syrian-backed allies warned that they would press for early parliamentary elections after the New Year's holiday if the Arab League mediation failed to meet the opposition's demand for a national unity government that would give them effective veto power on key decisions.
Lahoud has rejected repeated demands by the anti-Syrian factions to resign, vowing to stay in office until the end of his term. The anti-Syrian factions argue that Lahoud's stay in office was unconstitutional because his term was extended for another three years under Syrian pressure in 2004, when Syria dominated Lebanon. Since the extension of his mandate, Lahoud has been boycotted by the United States and its western allies.
During his meeting with Moussa, Lahoud renewed his rejection of early presidential elections, calling instead for early parliamentary polls based on a new election law, according to a presidential statement.
Lahoud told Moussa that the key to breaking the political deadlock is by "forming a national unity government in which the opposition can participate in fateful national decision-making."
Moussa expressed hope that a solution to the Lebanese crisis could be found. "I don't think the prospects [for a solution] are at a dead-end," he said.
Moussa later held another round of talks with Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally.
The Arab League chief was due to visit Syria, which wields influence with Hezbollah, on Thursday as part of his moves to promote a solution to the Lebanese crisis.
Moussa held talks in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah on Sunday and was reported to have urged him to help resolve the deadlock.
After two days of marathon talks in Beirut last week, Moussa managed to get pro-government and opposition parties to agree on the outlines of a national unity Cabinet in which major decisions could be taken only by consensus. But the rival factions had failed to bridge other differences that threaten to scuttle the deal.