Lebanon’s presidency is vacant as crisis persists

Lebanon’s shaky government veered into uncertain political terrain as midnight Friday struck and the president’s term expired without the naming of a successor.

Faced with a constitutional crisis, the pro-Western government and the Syrian- and Iranian-backed opposition made competing claims to power, but both sides also ruled out the possibility of violence to resolve differences in the months-long dispute. The outgoing president declared a state of emergency, but the order was derided by many as having no practical effect.

“No political party in Lebanon has interests in having an explosive, chaotic situation,” said Okab Sakr, a Beirut-based political analyst and commentator.

The deadlocked political establishment Friday delayed for a week the crucial decision on replacing the outgoing Lebanese president.

Under Lebanon’s religion-based power-sharing arrangement, the presidency traditionally would go to a Maronite Christian. But the Christian community is deeply divided.

With the parliament unable to come up with a choice acceptable to its Western-backed majority and the opposition, the body’s speaker, Nabih Berri, rescheduled the meeting of lawmakers for Nov. 30.

Then, hours before his term expired, pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud declared a state of emergency and said he was handing power to the military, an order termed unconstitutional by the pro-Western alliance calling itself the March 14 movement. The military, they pointed out, already has responsibility for the country’s security.

“Any measure he might announce is equal in constitutional and legal terms to zero squared,” Said Farid Makari, deputy speaker of the National Assembly and a March 14 supporter, told reporters before the emergency declaration.

The political factions have been wrangling for weeks over the presidency in what has become part of a broader battle for regional influence between Washington and Tehran.

Lawmakers and political analysts remained unsure as to who had the right to take up the president’s limited duties. March 14 leaders said that under the constitution, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora would assume the powers, such as signing decrees and approving political hires, until a new president was named and a new government formed.

But the opposition, led by the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah, said that it considered Siniora’s government illegitimate and that Lahoud could decide who would take over his duties.

Opposition figures appeared ready to accept Siniora taking up presidential duties as long as his government kept a low profile, and the March 14 group appeared ready to accept the army maintaining security. It was unclear whether Lahoud’s declaration of a state of emergency would tilt that balance.

Hezbollah opposes any attempt by the government to take away its militia’s considerable arsenal of light and heavy weapons, as demanded by the United Nations Security Council.

Pro-Syrian lawmakers and political groups have tried to block attempts to bring to justice those responsible for the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“It’s true that the government exists on the ground,” said Nawar Sahili, one of about a dozen Hezbollah lawmakers. “But they cannot make any major decisions. If they make any decisions in the following week, this will be very dangerous for the country.”

Some Lebanese analysts speculated that Syria was preventing a deal from being made before next week’s Mideast peace summit in Annapolis, Md.

“The horizons of compromise seem blocked until the end of the Annapolis conference,” said the announcer on Hezbollah’s Al Manar satellite TV channel.

Syria has little incentive to help bring the two sides in Beirut to an agreement, said Sami Moubayed, a political analyst based in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Moubayed said European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana had asked the Syrians this year to help stabilize Lebanon in exchange for pushing Israel to hand back the occupied Golan Heights and for a trade agreement with Europe.

“But Syria has gotten nothing from the international community,” he said. “We haven’t even gotten proper assistance on the Iraqi refugee issue.”

Friday’s brief Lebanese parliamentary session had a theatrical quality. All 68 pro-Western lawmakers, some living under heavy guard in a five-star hotel because of a string of assassinations of colleagues, drove up to the parliament in painstakingly restored downtown Beirut.

They stepped out of their armored SUVs and walked into the building through a swarm of local and international journalists held back by velvet ropes.

Opposition lawmakers formally boycotted the session, but many came to the building anyway, hobnobbing with reporters. Ali Bazzi, a member of the Syrian-backed Shiite Amal party, appeared momentarily dumbfounded when asked whether Lebanon’s political class was serving the interests of its 4 million people.

“The Lebanese people,” answered Bazzi, whose party is closely aligned with Hezbollah, “they do really deserve better opportunities, treatment and hope from both sides, the majority and opposition.”

At midnight, Lahoud departed from the presidential palace after nine years as president.

Meanwhile, Lebanese television channels aired footage of revelers cheering and shouting slogans against the pro-Syrian president in Sunni Muslim neighborhoods of Beirut.

A fireworks display filled the skies.

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daragahi@latimes.com

Daragahi is a Times staff writer and Rafei a special correspondent.