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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| President Lahoud Said To Have Made Secret Damascus Mission |
| 2005-10-31 |
| Beirut, 31 Oct. (AKI) - Lebanese president Emile Lahoud made a secret visit to Damascus on Sunday to meet his opposite number Bashar al-Assad, Beirut daily as-Safir reports, quoting "authoratitive Arab diplomatic sources" in the Lebanese capital. "The report is credible, and with all probability was leaked by someone from the Egyptian embassy in Beirut," a newsper official told Adnkronos International (AKI). Most local observers say the purpose of the reported visit would inevitably be for Lahoud to Since his election in 1998, Emile Lahoud has been a staunch ally of Damascus and the extension of his mandate last year was obtained thanks to intense Syrian pressure on parliamentarians in Beirut. After the assassination of Rafik Hariri in February, Lahoud was accused by much of the anti Syrian opposition and the public of being involved in the attack. The arrests on 30 August of four former top-level security officials - men all closely linked both to Lahoud and to the Syrian regime - for alleged involvement in the attack, only served to confirm such suspicions. In the UN-commisisoned report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, made public ten days ago, Emile Lahoud is called in to question regarding a phone call he allegedly received just before the explosion from a cellphone. Lahoud's political legitimacy is seriously compromised, and many Lebanese political analysts are now saying it is unlikely he can complete his mandate which expires at the end of 2007. For months now, the rumour mill in Beirut has been churning with speculation on his possible successor, though no political party has officially put forward a candidate. Under an unwritten rule that is neither contained in the constitution nor included in the Taif accords, which in 1989 put an end to Lebanon's civil war, the presidency must be given to a representative of the Maronite Christian community. The most probable candidates currently are: Boutros Harb, known for his anti-Syrian stance and his long institutional experience; Nassib Lahoud, an independent MP known for his reformist ideas; and general Michel Aoun, who returned to Lebanon earlier this year, after 15 years in exile in France. For the moment, there is no political common ground on these names, even if the main non-Christian parties (Sunnis represented by the alliance led by Saad Hariri, son of the assassinated politician, the Druze of veteran Walid Jumblatt, and Shiites from the alliance between militia parties Amal and Hezbollah), have all taken a conciliatory stance, saying it would be better that the Christian parties first find some unity on a shortlist of candidates which, subsequently, can be put up for discussion. The Maronite patriarch Boutros Nasrallah Sfeir has however taken a different tack, saying recently that he did not want "the choice of the president of the republic to remain a question limited to the Christian community". |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 Condos or bunkers, Emile? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-10-31 09:31 |
| #2 Maronites are Eastern Rite Catholics - they use the Eastern Orthodox liturgies but are aligned with the roman hierarchy. |
| Posted by: anon 2005-10-31 09:05 |
| #1 Question on Lebanese demographics. What is the catholic composition of the maronite christian bloc? We have a large Lebanese minority in my area and they are all Catholics. |
| Posted by: Rightwing 2005-10-31 09:02 |