Lebanon's political opposition has failed to adopt Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt's call for President Emile Lahoud to step down in its official list of demands for approving a transitional government. Instead the group called for the resignation of the country's security chiefs in the wake of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination and for Syria's President Bashar Assad to withdraw all his country's troops and intelligence agencies from Lebanon immediately. The demand for the "immediate" resignation of Lebanon's public prosecutor and six top security officials to ensure the integrity of the probe into Hariri's assassination, followed a meeting of most of the opposition grouping at Jumblatt's ancestral mansion of Mukhtara, where he has remained in recent days for security purposes.Jumblatt was philosophical about the rejection by his colleagues of his demand that Lahoud should resign. He said: "This statement might not be up to the ambitions of the Lebanese youth. But the unity of the opposition was placed above all." Jumblatt added: "Our demands are moderate, the popular demands downtown are much higher." But speaking later on CNN, the Druze leader said: "The best scenario is for the president to resign and for Parliament to appoint a new president and Cabinet."
The refusal to demand Lahoud's resignation is understood to have come about after Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir urged the opposition to work for change within the framework of the country's Constitution. Sfeir, the spiritual patron of the Christian Qornet Shehwan opposition group is understood to feel Lahoud's resignation may lead to unrest in the country.