Lebanon’s Hariri calls for lawmakers to elect a president

BEIRUT — Former prime minister Saad Al Hariri on Friday called on lawmakers to elect a president after nearly two months of a power vacuum in Lebanon.

He also demanded that Shiite movement Hizbollah pull out of the war in neighbouring Syria.

Lebanon has not had a president since May because politicians have been unable to agree on a candidate that would satisfy the country’s two main political blocs — Hariri’s Sunni-led March 14 alliance and Hizbollah’s March 8 coalition.

Lebanon’s sectarian tensions have been worsened by the three-year-old war in Syria, which pits overwhelmingly Sunni rebels against President Bashar Assad, a member of the Shiite-derived Alawite minority, and allied Shiite groups including Hizbollah.

Hariri told his supporters by televised broadcast that electing a president was the first step to resolving the political deadlock and would open the way to Lebanon holding parliamentary elections on time.

“We want parliamentary elections held on schedule, and we do not want an extension for the parliament,” he said. “But the entrance to the parliamentary elections is electing a president of the republic — today before tomorrow.”

Hariri, seen as one of the few political leaders of Lebanon’s Sunnis, has been in self-imposed exile between France and Saudi Arabia. He has feared attack ever since his government was toppled in 2011 by the March 8 coalition.

Lebanon, still recovering from its own 1975-1990 civil war, has periodically dealt with periods of political vacuum as rival sectarian blocs jockeyed for influence. But the stakes are higher as Syria’s conflict stokes tensions at home.

Parliamentary elections have already been delayed once because of political deadlock and violence spilling over from Syria — they were supposed to be held in June last year but were postponed until November.

Under Lebanon’s political system, the president must be a Maronite Christian. The prime minister is a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament is a Shiite Muslim.

Hariri has blamed Assad for the 2005 assassination of his father, Rafik Al Hariri, who also served as prime minister. A special tribunal in the Netherlands has been trying four Hizbollah members in absentia for the killing, which the group denies having anything to do with.

In his speech on Friday, Hariri renewed his demand that Hizbollah end its participation in Syria’s conflict, which critics say has sucked Lebanon further into their larger neighbour’s quagmire.

“Unfortunately Hizbollah believes that it will save the regime of Bashar Assad. The truth is no one can save Assad’s regime,” he said.

Hariri said Lebanon must confront militants but he rejected arbitrary and unjustified arrests or violations of citizens’ rights. He called on Hizbollah to work within the framework of the state.

“If Hizbollah is part of a national Lebanese project led by the state to confront terrorism, that is a good thing,” he said.

“But if it is part of the trinity led by Iran that includes [Prime Minister Nouri] Al Maliki’s state in Iraq and Assad’s state in Syria, this constitutes a heavy burden for Lebanon and the safety of the Lebanese people.”