Europe Competes over Williams Successor

The European countries are competing among each other to press their candidates to succeed United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams as his tenure comes to an end on Sept. 30, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Monday.

European diplomatic sources told the daily that the Lebanese government supports ex- Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain Miguel Angel Moratinos to succeed Williams, whereby President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati voiced support for Moratinos’ candidacy during separate talks with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki moon.

The newspaper remarked that the Lebanese cabinet justifies its support for Moratinos by saying that he closely followed up the Lebanese developments when he was appointed as EU's Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process and then by becoming the head of Spanish Foreign Ministry.

The competition is mainly limited to Moratinos along with former Norwegian Ambassador to Lebanon Aud Lise Norheim and Switzerland's Special Envoy for the Middle East Jean Daniel Ruch, al-Hayat said.

However, the sources said that Ban has his reasons to carefully choose his representative in Lebanon, besides “it’s inappropriate to rule out the option of appointing Ruch and Norheim.”

They noted that Finland also has the will to press a veteran diplomatic official for the candidacy.