Arab League in bid to resolve Lebanon crisis

BEIRUT—An Arab League delegation was meeting with rival leaders in Beirut on Wednesday in a bid to mediate a settlement to deadly sectarian gunbattles that have driven Lebanon close to civil war.
The team, headed by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, was holding talks with members of the US-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition who have been locked in a bitter political feud for 18 months. “Last chance for compromise or chaos,” said Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to the opposition.
Top of the agenda will be efforts to end an anti-government protest campaign by Hezbollah militants and their allies that has led to the shutdown of a number of major roads in Lebanon, including the highway to the airport. No commercial flights have been scheduled from the country’s only international airport for the seventh straight day, an airport official said.
There was speculation that the government would decide at a meeting later Wednesday to reverse its recent controversial decisions concerning the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah, which triggered the latest turmoil. “May 14: The government rescinds its decisions... and the opposition ends its civil disobedience campaign,” headlined the As-Safir newspaper which is close to the opposition.
The Arab League in recent months has made a number of failed attempts to mediate an end to the long-running political standoff between the ruling majority and opposition that exploded into deadly gunbattles last week. The sectarian fighting is the worst since the Lebanese civil war ended in 1990 and has left at least 65 people dead and around 200 wounded in six bloody days.
It was unleashed after the government said it was launching a probe into a communication network set up by Hezbollah and reassigned the head of airport security over allegations he was close to the powerful Shiite Muslim militant group. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said last Thursday that the government action amounted to a declaration of war and within hours his fighters and their allies had taken over large swathes of Sunni areas in west Beirut.
The fighters withdrew at the weekend after the army moved in. However, the opposition said some roads, including the ones to the airport, would remain shut as part of a civil disobedience campaign that would only be lifted when the government officially rescinds its decisions. A precarious calm has settled over the country since Tuesday after the army said it was ready to use force to restore order.
US President George W. Bush, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday, warned Iran and Syria on the eve of his trip that the international community would not allow Lebanon to fall under foreign domination again and vowed to shore up the Lebanese military. Washington said it was also expecting the UN Security Council to take action this week over the unrest.
Senior US national security officials said Washington plans to intensify its pressure on Syria and Iran over their alleged support for Hezbollah’s uprising against the Lebanese government. “We are going to be unrolling a few things in the course of the week, starting perhaps with the Security Council,” Deputy White House National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams said.
The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a deep political crisis which erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit seeking more opposition representation in the government. The standoff has left the country without a president since November 2007, when Damascus protege Emile Lahoud’s term ended. Parliament is due to meet on June 10 to make a 20th attempt to elect a president.

—Agencies