Lebanon talks

---

Click to view caption

Walid Jumblatt and President Hosni Mubarak

IN A SURPRISE visit to Cairo, veteran Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was met by President Hosni Mubarak on Monday. The visit came a few days after President Mubarak visited Damascus and discussed with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad the on-going political crisis in Lebanon that followed the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

In what seems to be a reset of their agenda, leading opposition figure Jumblatt told President Mubarak that holding parliamentary elections in time -- scheduled in April or May -- is now the opposition's top priority. Following Al-Hariri's assassination Jumblatt and other leaders of the opposition had insisted on the resignation of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.

"The priority is for holding elections after Syria completes the withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon according to a definite timetable and then the fate of the Lebanese president would be decided after announcing the elections results."

Jumblatt, who has also been leading calls for Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon and accusing the Lebanese government and what he describes as their "Syrian backers" of Al-Hariri's murder, adopted a more reconciliatory tone, noting that Lebanon and Syria should maintain their "historic and brotherly relations".

"We do not want to stand against Syria, but things cannot remain as they are now," said Jumblatt.

Opposition figures, confident that they will do well in the elections, have been urging Prime Minister Omar Karami, who resigned last month but was reappointed by President Lahoud to form a new government to quickly pick up a cabinet to lead Lebanon to elections. Jumblatt warned Karami that not holding parliamentary elections at the set date "will lead to a dangerous and long-drawn crisis".

According to Jumblatt, Lebanon's opposition will talk to Hizbullah leaders on Lebanon's future, but disarming the group was not on his current agenda. "It is an internal Lebanese issue which should be dealt with through a dialogue," he said.

Jumblatt also told reporters in Cairo that the investigation into Al-Hariri's death should announce its findings before parliamentary elections. Jumblatt has been demanding an international investigation into the killing.