Middle East News
Arab League delegation mediates talks between Lebanese (2nd Lead)
By DPA
May 14, 2008, 13:04 GMT

Beirut - A visiting Arab League delegation started meetings Wednesday between opposing the factions in Lebanon in a bid to resolve the conflict that has brought the country close to civil war.

The team, headed by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, started their meetings with Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri.

A source close to Berri who attended the meeting with the delegation told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that 'the meeting was positive.'

The delegation gave no statement after their talks with Berri.

The delegation is scheduled to meet next with Premier Fouad Seniora and later Druze leader Walid Jumblatt to try to defuse the violence that has engulfed the country since May 7 and has left at least 82 people killed.

'This is the last chance for compromise. If not, there will be chaos,' an Arab diplomat accompanying the delegation told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

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 country's international airport outside of Beirut.

No commercial flights have been scheduled from the 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's communication network, which triggered the latest turmoil.

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 the opposition that exploded into gunbattles last week.

The sectarian fighting is the worst since the Lebanese civil war ended in 1990.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said last Thursday that the government action against his group 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.

A source close to the opposition told dpa that 'roads will be opened the minute the cabinet backed away from its decision against Hezbollah.'

Meanwhile, a security source at the Lebanese-Syria border told dpa that the Masnaa road, a main passageway to Syria, has started to open.

The road was closed by government followers after Hezbollah started to blocked the main airport road on May 7.

Army bulldozers were busy removing debris and cement blocks from the road to open the road leading to the Lebanese-Syrian border.