Nearly four months before the end of his controversially extended mandate, President Emile Lahoud predicted Wednesday that Lebanon would "remain a state of resistance and steadfastness" until a thorough and just peace prevails over the Middle East.Lahoud made the remark in an address to the nation marking the first anniversary of Hizbullah's cross-border raid into Israel and the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that led to a 34-day bloody war with the Jewish state.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 brought the confrontation to a halt on Aug. 14 after it killed 1.200 civilians, displaced one million people and devastated the nation's infrastructure.
"We shall remain a state of resistance and steadfastness until we regain all our rights and (until) a thorough and just peace is achieved in the region," Lahoud said in his address, the text of which was distributed by the official National News Agency (NNA).
Lahoud blamed "some officials and parties" for failing to translate into facts "fruits of the victory" which he says was achieved during last summer's war.
Lahoud was obviously referring to Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's majority government and its backer, the March 14 alliance, that are criticized by the Syrian and Iranian backed Hizbullah-led opposition and the President.
Such officials and parties, Lahoud said, "participated in deepening political trenches" separating the Lebanese, violated the coexistence formula, monopolized power and rejected all calls for partnership including the formation of a national unity government.
The Hizbullah-led opposition has been trying in vain since Dec. 1 to topple the Siniora majority government, which is backed by the Arab League and the international community, in favor of forming a so-called national unity government that gives factions backed by Syria and Iran veto powers in the decision-making executive authority.
Such political factions opposed by Lahoud and his allies in the Hizbullah-led opposition "thought that international backing would provide them with domestic legitimacy. But I tell them they are wrong," the president added.
Lahoud said Lebanon's "might will eventually impose Lebanon's interests (and make them prevail) over the interests of states that manipulate some Lebanese sides to achieve their suspicious aims."
Syria, Lahoud and the Hizbullah-led opposition accuse the Siniora Government and the March 14 majority alliance of being mere puppets of the United States and other western powers. Syrian President Basher Assad has accused the Lebanese majority of being a mere "Israeli product."