LEBANON: Here we go again

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The scenario has become maddeningly familiar. Lebanon’s parliament sets a date to elect a president. Then, just days or sometimes hours before the selection, Speaker Nabih Berri calls for more negotiations between the feuding parties. Talks don’t yield anything and voting for a president is put off yet again.

Today that scenario held true to form. The parliamentary session for electing a new president was postponed from Monday, Feb. 11, until Feb. 26. It was the 14th time the vote was canceled, as fears grow that a prolonged political deadlock could precipitate violence. The country is deeply divided between supporters of the Western-backed governing majority and those of the Hezbollah-led opposition backed by Iran and Syria.

Lebanon has been without a head of state since November. Although the two feuding blocs said they had agreed on army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman for the top job, they haven’t been able to agree on who gets the upper hand in the next government. The country relies on a system of power sharing whereby the decision making process is divided among Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Druze.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut