President Emile Lahoud yesterday promised to hold "free and honest" elections, an announcement apparently aimed at easing foreign pressure and appeasing the country's anti-Syrian opposition.
Lahoud's pledge, made during a meeting with a EU delegation, came a day after he named moderate, pro-Syrian Najib Mikati as prime minister.
Lahoud, whose country is coming under increasing US and European pressure to ensure elections are held before the current legislature's mandate expires May 31, stressed he had agreed with Mikati on speeding the formation a new Cabinet to prepare for elections.
"The forthcoming parliamentary elections will be an occasion through which the Lebanese will express their political choices in a free, honest and democratic atmosphere," Lahoud told the EU delegation, according to a statement issued by the president's office.
He affirmed Lebanon's commitment to ensuring neutral, transparent elections and said Beirut would accept "neutral local or foreign groups" to monitor the polls.
Mikati's appointment Friday broke a political deadlock, coming two days after Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami quit following several weeks of failed efforts to form a government.
The elections are crucial for the opposition, which backed Mikati in an effort to end the impasse in forming a government and open the way for elections many believe will break Syria's hold on parliament.
The EU urged Lebanese authorities Saturday to hold "free, fair and transparent elections on schedule ... without any outside interference or meddling."
"The European Union will keep a careful watch on the electoral process and stands ready to provide its assistance," said a statement on behalf the EU presidency after the EU delegation meeting with Lahoud.
US officials have also repeatedly called for "free and fair elections" in the presence of international observers without foreign interference -- a reference to Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon which has held enormous political influence in the country since Syrian troops entered Lebanon in 1976.
Lebanon's opposition groups, long suspicious of Syria's role in influencing the elections, have also demanded international observers to monitor the elections.
Karami's outgoing government has resisted the idea of international observers, arguing that it infringes on Lebanon's sovereignty.
Lahoud said the new Cabinet's priorities will be to steer an electoral bill through parliament and call an election, follow up on the investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, closely cooperate with an international commission to probe the killing and revive the battered economy.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS