Iran and Syria veto candidacy of Michel Khouri for Lebanese president, forcing another delay in the parliament’s vote

Monday, Iranian foreign minister Manuchehr Mottaki, Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualem and French special emissary Jean-Claude Cousseran, sought to negotiate an end to the crisis over the Lebanese presidency, which falls vacant on Nov. 24. Cousseran tabled the names of the six candidates listed by the Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Sfeir, including that of Khouri. After long discussion, Mualem and Mottaki rejected all six. The vote in Beirut was thus delayed again from Nov. 21 to Nov. 24.Syria’s Bashar Assad will be reviewing his options including a decision about sending a delegation to the meeting in Annapolis in the light of this breakdown. DEBKAfile’s sources in Beirut report that if Lebanon’s rival factional, ethnic and sectarian deputies fail even on this last date to settle on a consensual candidate, the outgoing president, the pro-Syrian Emi Lahoud may set up a provisional government alongside the incumbent administration of Fouad Siniora. Beirut will be ruled by two rival governments, opening up a dangerous gateway for revived civil conflict.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4786

As in the days of Noah.....