Rice says Lebanon to be tackled in Kuwait

Rice says Lebanon to be tackled in Kuwait 21 Apr 2008 17:27:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds details of Lebanon meeting, senior U.S. official)

MANAMA, April 21 (Reuters) - Talks on the political crisis in Lebanon will be held on the sidelines of a conference aimed at stabilising Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday.

Rice will join Arab nations and other G8 countries for the conference of Iraq's neighbours in Kuwait on Tuesday, which is expected to back Iraq's drive to disarm militias and urge more embassies to open in Baghdad.

France has been pulling together the ministerial-level meeting on Lebanon which is expected to call for the immediate election of a new president, said diplomats.

"There was a very strong commitment to a Lebanon that can discharge its affairs in an atmosphere of sovereignty and democracy without outside interference," Rice told a news conference after meeting Arab ministers in Bahrain where they discussed Iraq, Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lebanon is in the midst of its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, leaving the country without a president since November and souring relations with regional rivals Syria and Saudi Arabia.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani told reporters that envoys from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Jordan, Italy, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Britain and Russia would attend the meeting.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and a representative of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would also attend, she said.

Syria, which Washington and others accuses of stoking up tensions in Lebanon, has not been invited even though its foreign minister will be in Kuwait for the Iraq meeting, said a senior U.S. official travelling with Rice.

The official said Arab nations had looked at what could be done to break the deadlock in Lebanon.

"They want to see what they can do to support the government and broaden its political stature and carry it through this period of tension," he said.

Lebanon's parliament is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to elect a president, but after 17 delays of the vote, political sources were not expecting a breakthrough.

The conflict in Lebanon pits the Beirut government -- close to Saudi Arabia and the United States -- against an opposition dominated by the Shi'ite Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran.

The government has been paralysed by the crisis. The main point of dispute is the opposition demand for effective veto power in cabinet, which the ruling coalition has rejected.

Syria pledged at an Arab summit last month to cooperate on ending the crisis but made it clear it would not push its allies in Lebanon to allow the election of a new president unless their demands are met.

Ties between Syria and Lebanon's governing coalition and Western powers soured after the killing of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.

An international investigation team has also implicated Syrian officials in the assassination, one of the reasons for the crisis in Lebanon. Syria denies involvement.

Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2005 after a 29-year sojourn amid mass Lebanese protests. (Writing by Lin Noueihed and Sue Pleming; Editing by Matthew Jones)