Despair to Dancing in Qatar

Bin Jassem, would go to the buffet, with a smile addressed to all but to no one in particular, then retire to a calmer place, and meet with leaders separately. One of the most complicated issues being discussed was the electoral law to be adopted in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and I was told that Bin Jassem became a professional on electoral districts. The problem we learned was about the Armenian seat in Beirut, and people started joking that the seat of Agob Parkradonian will decide the fate of the region's nuclear weapons.

Every night, politicians gathered in the lobby, with journalists. The editor- in-chief of the country's leading newspapers were also there, waiting until the early hours of the morning to decide on their headlines.

On the second night of negotiations, Saad Hariri retired around 2:30 a.m. With a gesture of his fingers, he said that we're almost there. The next morning the opposition issued a statement that made it clear that no progress had been made at all. At lunch, Hariri said that we were back to square one. Don't worry, I'm not leaving Qatar without a solution, he said.

But that afternoon, it became clear the Qataris weren't planning to host an open-ended dialogue. Qatar TV spread the word that a press conference was going to be held. The word spread that they were going to announce the failure of negotiations and that they were going to point to the side they held responsible.

Like everybody else, I was petrified. We started hearing about security breaches in Beirut. The press conference was postponed to the next day. And on that day, the journalists took their seats. Those wishing to ask questions registered their names. Two seats were placed for Bin Jassem and Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, and an organizer kept saying in minutes the Sheikh would arrive.

Everybody was worried.

Next to me sat Nada Abdel Samad, the BBC correspondent in Beirut. She wrote, 20 May, 2008. She then scratched 2008 and wrote 1975, the year the civil war began. This is how everybody felt. We're going back to a conflict.

The minutes were long and heavy. Few people spoke. We waited. And then, a Qatari minister entered the room, said the committee had come up with two scenarios for a solution, that one side had demanded additional time to think about it, and that 24 hours were given to that party.

At about 3 a.m. the next day, Ali Hassan Khalil, an opposition lawmaker, entered the lobby and said that a deal was done, and that parliament could convene any time now to elect a president. Twelve hours later we were on our way back to Beirut, and on the trip back, cheerfulness overtook exhaustion.

The cameramen and photographers started singing and dancing. The tension that only a few days earlier could almost be touched was gone, and I could swear that I even caught a glimpse of the Hezbollah security guards with us on the plane -- their guns around their waists -- smile a few times.