Lebanon's parliament was scheduled to meet yesterday to amend the Constitution to enable the election of the army chief as head of state, officials of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the opposition backed by Damascus and Tehran said.
Several politicians had said on Thursday that the parliamentary vote was set to be delayed for a seventh time as feuding parties accused each other of blocking the process.
But an official of Saad Hariri's ruling Future parliamentary bloc who requested anonymity said: "There's a session Friday to amend the Constitution."
This was backed by an opposition member of parliament who said parliamentary speaker and opposition leader Nabih Berri had called on members of his bloc to take part in the meeting.
Also asking for anonymity, the opposition member of parliament said he did not rule out the presidential election being held after the vote on amending the Constitution.
After weeks of negotiations, rival leaders have agreed on army chief General Michel Sleiman for the top job but are still divided on how to amend the Constitution to allow his election and on the make-up of a new Cabinet.
Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun reiterated on Thursday that he would only endorse Sleiman for two years until the 2009 parliamentary elections, and blamed the ruling majority for the deadlock.
"I have made enough compromises and I will add a new demand every day," Aoun said.
The ruling majority "led us to the void. They thought that the void would scare us ... but it does not scare us and the presidency will always be there," he said.
"If not now, in a week, if not, in a month or in a year. The country will not be destroyed, more than this current government has been destroying it," said Aoun, who had himself been running for the top job.
Article 49 of the Constitution bars public servants from assuming the presidency within two years of leaving their posts.
Lebanon has been without a president since Nov. 23, when incumbent Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term.
Aoun has suggested the crisis over the presidency could end if independent figures are chosen to fill the posts of president and prime minister, a proposal the ruling majority has rejected.
The Hezbollah-led opposition has been seeking a "comprehensive deal" to end the crisis, including agreements on the new president, the make-up of the next government, a new electoral law and the appointment of security chiefs.
The ruling majority has insisted that it would not be tied down to any pre-set deals before a president is elected, saying lingering problems would be dealt with by the future government and parliament.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS