Lebanon: Lebanon's opposition, which united to demand the pullout of Syrian troops, split yesterday as efforts to include a key Christian leader in a broad Christian-Muslim electoral alliance collapsed.
The elections are the first in Lebanon without Syrian troops for three decades and look sure to see the opposition strengthened at the expense of pro-Damascus politicians.
Opposition factions banded together to stage huge protests demanding the pullout of Syrian troops after the February 14th assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. But the alliance did not last long after Syrian withdrawal last month.
"We could not reach an agreement," Maronite Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun told a news conference. "So the Lebanese people will arbitrate between us."
Contacts between Mr Aoun and aides of Druze Muslim leader Walid Jumblatt and Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri failed to produce a joint slate for the key Baabda-Aley constituency in Mount Lebanon, a mixed district in the centre of the country. Nevertheless, the election held between May 29th and June 19th will not be fought down simple sectarian lines.
The three leaders and other factions will field mixed Muslim-Christian lists that are needed to succeed in Lebanon's complicated power-sharing system. Mr Jumblatt and Mr al-Hariri have forged alliances with smaller Christian opposition factions.
Political sources said talks with Mr Aoun failed because he wanted to select candidates for non-Maronite seats in Baabda-Aley, while Mr Jumblatt would only let him name those for the two Maronite seats available.
Mr Aoun said the failure to ally in Mount Lebanon, where he and Mr Jumblatt are dominant, did not preclude an alliance with Mr al-Hariri in northern and eastern Lebanon, where the latter has influence. But lawmaker Ghattas Khouri, a Hariri aide at the heart of the failed talks, ruled out any separate deal with Mr Aoun.
A UN verification team has concluded that Syria has fully withdrawn its military forces from Lebanon, in line with a Security Council demand, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said on Monday. However, the team's report, released shortly after Mr Annan's comments, hedged on whether all Syrian intelligence agents had been pulled out.
"The withdrawal of the Syrian intelligence apparatus has been harder to verify because intelligence activities are, by nature, often clandestine," the report said.