| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanese ask U.N. & Arab League for protection from Syria |
| 2007-09-22 |
| The March 14 majority alliance on Thursday called on the Arab League and the United Nations to protect Lebanon's forthcoming presidential elections from alleged Syrian attempts to block it, including the slaying of MP Antoine Ghanem. The alliance also demanded that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri "shoulder his responsibilities" in shepherding the presidential elections by working to dismantle the tent city opposition protest, which is a few meters from parliament headquarters. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Fouad Saniora presided over a ministerial meeting which stressed that the "terrorist" slaying of MP Antoine Ghanem would only reinforce its demand that a parliamentary vote to choose a new president goes ahead on time. "We do not fear terrorism and this will not break our will. It will only reinforce our determination to prevent the terrorists from succeeding," said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi. "This is a terrorist act similar to the terrorist acts against the lives of members of the majority" over the past three years, Aridi told reporters after a ministerial meeting chaired by Saniora. "It cannot be separated from the presidential election... or from attempts to plunge the country into chaos," he said. "But we are determined to hold the election on time," he said, confirming that Berri had said the September 25 date still holds for a parliamentary session to choose a successor to President Emile Lahoud. Aridi said the ruling majority "keeps its hand extended to everybody," in an apparent reference to the country's opposition. "We have to save Lebanon." The March 14 alliance also urged the Hizbullah-led opposition to adopt a "moral stand by supporting the victim Â… and refraining from covering the Syrian regime with justifications." Parliament is due to convene next Tuesday for the first time in nearly a year amid an almost total deadlock between the pro-Damascus opposition and the Western-backed ruling majority which has accused Syria of Ghanem's murder. The majority alliance said it was the MPs "duty" to take part in the parliamentary session to elect a new head of state. It called on the Arab League, the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council to "take all the resolutions and adopt all arrangements in all spheres to guarantee the holding of presidential elections and protecting the republic." It also urged foreign nations to adopt a "decisive stand" regarding the Syrian regime. Ghanem, killed along with four others in a car bombing on Wednesday in a Beirut suburb, was the eighth member of the anti-Syrian majority to be assassinated since the 2005 murder of former billionaire premier Rafiq Hariri. The majority accused Syria of "physically eliminating the deputies in order to prevent the presidential vote. "The Syrian regime has taken the decision to destroy Lebanon by blocking government actions, preventing the presidential election, creating chaos and resuming its hegemony over Lebanon," the majority statement said. It called for "massive participation" in Ghanem's funeral on Friday, a day of national mourning. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Lebanese ask U.N. & Arab League for protection from Syria Good luck with that. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-09-22 10:37 |
| #2 "Arab Nation" is an oxymoron, newc. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-09-22 10:04 |
| #1 Lebanon means more to me than any other arab nation. |
| Posted by: newc 2007-09-22 01:15 |