Lebanese MPs again fail to elect president amid political deadlock

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Lebanon's deeply divided parliament failed Tuesday yet again to elect the country's president in an ongoing deadlock that prompted Arab foreign ministers meeting in Kuwait to express dismay and indirectly rebuke Syria. The stalemate has become Lebanon's worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war, and the fierce power struggle between the pro-Western government and the Syria-backed opposition has occasionally degenerated into violence. The chamber has tried 17 times since September to vote in army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as a consensus president. But opposition lawmakers have been ignoring slated parliament sessions, leaving the 128-seat house without the necessary two-thirds quorum needed for the balloting.