Lebanon: Moussa pushes plan

This week, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa is in Beirut, pushing his plan to bring Lebanon's political crisis to an end.

The League's plan for Lebanon -- which has been without a head of state since former president Emile Lahoud ended his term on November 23 -- calls for the election of army commander General Michel Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government in which no party has veto power and the adoption of a new electoral law. The ruling March 14 coalition is said to have supported the plan, but the Hizbollah-led opposition is demanding a division of cabinet seats, which will give it veto power. It says that if the pro-government team does not respond to the partnership demand, this means it is deviating from the democratic rules of the game to leave the country in vacuum.

This is the power struggle that lies at the heart of the long-running crisis, meaning that the agreement reached last month on Suleiman as a compromise candidate for president was a false dawn.

France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said last week that Lebanon's political crisis would have to be taken to the UN if Moussa's efforts to persuade Lebanese leaders to accept the League's peace plan fail. Unfortunately, UN mediation is unlikely to bring an end to the political stalemate.