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| Obeid looks for compromise on diplomatic posts | ||
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| Khalil Fleihan Daily Star correspondent The countdown is already on for the reshuffling of diplomatic posts, an informed source said over the weekend. Foreign Minister Jean Obeid is trying to strike compromises with top leaders regarding the distribution of posts among the country’s various religious groups. On Monday, Obeid is expected to meet with President Emile Lahoud, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in an attempt to sell them a draft plan for the long-overdue appointments. The source said that Obeid was trying to get the distribution through “with a minimum of objections.” He is quoted as having said that he had no personal demands with regard to the appointments. In other words, he does not have any ambassadorial post to claim for any particular religious group. The source said that Obeid had tried to iron out some difficulties which prevented the appointments from being made some four years ago, namely the disagreements between President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Most recently, the two topmost leaders disagreed about a plan drafted by Hariri to build new public schools in the country. Lahoud thought the plan allocated too many schools to Beirut, which Hariri represents in Parliament. The dispute, which forced the cancellation of two Cabinet meetings, was settled by referring the matter to a ministerial committee with mediation by Syrian officials and Culture Minister Ghazi Aridi. On sounding out Lahoud on the issue, it was clear that the president was determined to maintain Ambassador Farid Abboud in the United States and on maintaining the posts of ambassadors in Italy and at the UNESCO organization in Paris in the hands of Maronites. Lahoud has also indicated that he was opposed to any ambassadorial appointments being made from outside the ranks. Obeid is trying to appoint some Christian ambassadors in Arab countries, bearing in mind that “the only Christian ambassador was in Tunis and that there was no harm in having a Christian ambassador in Cairo.” Similarly, Obeid wants more Muslim ambassadors in Western Europe because the only Muslim ambassadors in Western Europe were based in Germany, Belgium and Britain. The proposed diplomatic reshuffle skips the ambassadorial post in Iraq, because of the security situation and in Liberia because of the current political instability. The ambassadors who are due to be repatriated include: Maronites – Butros Asaker (Moscow), Charbel Aoun, (Ghana), Aziz Qazzi (Uruguay) and Qozhaya Khoury (Brazil); Shiites – Nasrat Asaad (South Korea) and Ahmed Ibrahim (Poland); Sunnis – Mustafa Mustafa (Morocco), Abdel-Majid Qassir (Romania) and Bassam Naamani (Saudi Arabia); and Eastern Orthodox – Jean Daniel (India). The vacant ambassadorial posts include: Italy, the Lebanese delegation to UNESCO, the United Nations, Germany, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia. Meanwhile the ambassadors now based in Beirut and likely to be transferred to other posts include: Maronites – the head of political affairs, Naji Abi Assi, Fouad Khoury, Victor Bitar, Charbel Estefan, Jibrail Geara and Fares Eid; Melchites – Masoud Maalouf, Micheline Abi Samra and Nawal Fattal; Druze – Assem Jaber; Sunni – Abdel-Latif Mamlouk and Hisham Dimashqieh; and Shiites – Mohammed Dib and Hassan Saad. |
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