Rivals in Lebanon vote dispute meet in Paris

31 October 2007

BEIRUT (AFP) – Rival Lebanese leaders General Michel Aoun and Saad Hariri met in Paris on Wednesday amid efforts to resolve the country’s deadlock on electing a new president, an official in the general’s camp said.

Amid lack of agreement on a consensus candidate, a session of Lebanon’s parliament to elect a new president has been twice postponed and is now scheduled to take place on November 12.

The talks between Aoun, a declared candidate for the post supported by the pro-Syrian opposition, and Hariri who leads the Western-backed parliamentary majority, was being held at a secret location in the French capital.

“The meeting has started,” the official told AFP, without giving details on the encounter taking place after Hariri flew in from a visit to Cairo and Aoun arrived from Beirut.

Fears are running high in Beirut that the standoff between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps could lead to two rival governments, a grim reminder of the end of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war when two administrations battled it out.

AFP

Subject: French news