| Lebanon parliament to
vote on new government BEIRUT, Lebanon - The
new Lebanese government headed by Fuad Siniora, the first of the post-Syrian era, is set
to win parliamentary approval on Saturday after three days of debate.
The main anti-Damascus alliance which nominated Siniora has an eight-seat majority in the
128-member legislature following parliamentary elections in May and June.
Siniora's 24-member line-up is the first elected government since Syria ended its
three-decade military presence in its smaller neighbour in April in the face of intense
international pressure.
His cabinet also includes minister from the Shiite Muslim fundamentalist movement
Hezbollah, which Washington still regards as a terrorist organization.
Siniora on Thursday presented a series of reforms to parliament on Thursday, pledging a
programme to focus on national reconciliation and democracy.
After the confidence vote, Siniora is to make his first official visit abroad on Sunday to
Damascus to try to improve relations that have deteriorated since the troop pullout.
Siniora has called for "healthy, privileged and solid relations" with Lebanon's
former political masters.
Siniora, 62, is a former finance minister and close ally of former predecessor Rafiq
Hariri, killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February widely blamed on Syria and
its allies in Lebanon.
He is due to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri
during his visit, Lebanese officials said Saturday.
"I want to come back (from the trip) with a new way of dealing between Lebanon and
Syria, a new thinking, that we should co-operate and create an attitude of openness
between the two countries," he said in an interview with the Financial Times
published Thursday.
"The attitude has to be based on mutual interest and respect."
Since the elections the two sides have been locked in a row, with Lebanese trucks being
blocked at the border in a major blow to trade, and large numbers of Syrian workers have
left Lebanon, depriving their country of desperately needed remittances. |
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