Words For Amr Moussa

The Arab League’s Secretary (and the Lebanese) could do worse than reading this article on Koffie Annan’s efforts to solve the Kenyan Crisis.

Here’s Mr. Annan’s take on why he had to be swift:

We have to make sure there’s just one mediation process. Otherwise you have the protagonists trying to bottom shop, looking elsewhere if they don’t like what you’re offering. You get diplomatic tourism and that’s no good.

Read this bit and just replace Kenya with Lebanon, and the two parties with their counterparts.

Kibaki’s team kept saying, ‘’We won it fair and square,’’ as Odinga’s countered, ‘’You stole it fair and square.’’ Kibaki, a Kikuyu, talked of ‘’accommodating’’ the opposition; Odinga, a Luo, bridled. If pushed, he would form ‘’an alternative government.’’’’It took a while to convince them that there was no way either side could run the country without the other, that it was a perfect political gridlock,’’ Annan told me.

He got a German official to explain grand coalitions. He got [..] the Tanzanian leader, to talk about how presidents and prime ministers work together. He was helped by President George W. Bush declaring during his recent African visit that ‘’there ought to be a power sharing agreement.’’Kibaki’s foreign minister retorted that Kenya would not be ‘’given conditions by foreign states’’ — the old anti-imperialist thing

But this was international intervention of another kind. The pressure cornered Kibaki. He ceded, empowering Odinga as a prime minister with authority anchored by constitutional change.