LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 15/2007

Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15,9-17. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.

Free Opinions
What America and Iran might do - and what the Lebanese must. May 15/07

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 15/4/07
Saniora Gives U.N. Go-Ahead to Establish Tribunal-Naharnet
Saniora to Send Letter Asking U.N. to Establish Tribunal-Naharnet
U.S. Harmonizing Act in Dealing with Iran Despite Differences On Lebanon, Nukes.Naharnet
Bush: US Proud to be Leading 'Advance of Freedom' in Lebanon.Naharnet
UK man tells of 'kidnap' in Syria.BBC News
Talks with Syria could lead to war, says Mossad chief.Ynetnews
Peretz: Israel should talk with Syria.Jerusalem Post
Syria trip by Pelosi was pointless and ill-advised.The Daily Advertiser
Does Syria Want Peace?Infolive.tv
Lahoud Warns Saniora Over Presidential Elections.Naharnet
Mossad chief: Talks with Syria won't break Hezbollah ties.Ha'aretz
The Region: America talks, Syria imprisons.Jerusalem Post
Lahoud Warns Saniora Over Presidential Elections-Naharnet

Latest News Reports From The Daily Star for May 14/4/07
Lebanese politicians trade warnings over presidency
Sfeir laments lack of unity among Christians
Azour wants panel on compensation
Hariri pays tribute to outgoing ESCWA chief
Graziano thanks departing French troops
Local organization for the disabled has been showing the way for half a century
'Operation Big Blue' carries out annual clean-up of fouled coastline
Round-table tries to define war - and ways to avoid it

Saniora Gives U.N. Go-Ahead to Establish Tribunal
Prime Minister Fouad Saniora on Monday sent a strong request to the U.N. urging the world body to take a "binding decision" to set up an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters at the end of a cabinet meeting Monday evening that Saniora sent the letter earlier in the day urging U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to establish the court after attempts to ratify the draft law in parliament have failed.
"In a letter sent this morning, the prime minister made a strong request to Ban Ki-moon to ask the Security Council to take a binding decision," Aridi said. Aridi read out Saniora's letter which said: "The Lebanese government believes that the time has come for the Security Council to help make the special tribunal for Lebanon a reality.
"We therefore ask as a matter of urgency to put before the Security Council our request that the special tribunal be put into effect. "A binding decision regarding the tribunal on the part of the Security Council will be fully consistent with the importance the U.N. has attached to this matter from the outset, when the investigation commission was established."
He was referring to a U.N. commission of inquiry, now headed by Serge Brammertz of Belgium, which has implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the killing of Hariri. The daily As Safir, citing Western diplomatic sources in New York, said Monday the U.N. was likely to approve creation of the court within the next 48 hours.
The sources said the Security Council was expected to meet on Tuesday and thereafter "unanimously" vote to approve the draft law to create the tribunal.
As Safir said the obvious question now was what the next phase would be like following set up of the tribunal in the wake of MP Saad Hariri's announcement of a fresh political initiative to enter into dialogue with the Hizbullah-led opposition.
The tribunal, the heart of Lebanon's worst political crisis, has been a major issue that has divided Lebanon into pro and anti-Syrian camps. All six pro-Syrian government ministers quit last November, accusing Saniora of riding roughshod over the power-sharing arrangements in force since the 1975-90 civil war.
Both House Speaker Nabih Berri and pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud have since refused to recognize the rump anti-Syrian cabinet. The Hizbullah-led opposition has made plain it strongly opposes any move by the Security Council to impose the international court under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, so Saniora's action is likely to inflame the political crisis which has seen opposition supporters camped outside his offices for months.
"We say no to the establishment of a tribunal under Chapter Seven," Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a key Berri ally, said earlier this month. Saniora's government accuses the opposition of deliberately blocking ratification of the tribunal blueprint, which has already been endorsed by the Security Council, at the behest of their Syrian masters.
But the opposition insists that it backs the tribunal in principle, and is merely insisting on its legitimate right to be consulted over the details. Damascus has made clear that it will not allow any Syrians to be tried by a court it regards as an affront to its sovereignty.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 14 May 07, 07:31

.S. Harmonizing Act in Dealing with Iran Despite Differences On Lebanon, Nukes
The prospect of direct U.S.-Iranian talks on Iraq represents an important shift in relations between the two adversaries, the Associated Press said in a news analysis.
It said the development comes during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to the region, where he is trying to convince moderate Arab states that the U.S. will stand firm against Tehran's regime. He also is seeking to build support for the delicate Iraqi government. Cheney is only one part of a U.S. tag team, wrote Tom Raum, who has covered national and international affairs for The Associated Press since 1973. The second member, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seems to be playing on the other side of the street, Raum said. Cheney has emphasized a hard line on Iran over the past week in stops in moderate Arab nations and talks to U.S. troops in Iraq and on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. He has urged Arab countries to do more to help stabilize the Iraqi government and hinted that Washington would work to keep Iran from dominating the region. Rice is leading a countervailing effort to reach out to Iran despite serious doubts whether there is anyone willing to reach back. The two tracks crossed on Sunday.
Iran's official news agency reported that the U.S. sought face-to-face meetings in Baghdad with the Iranians to discuss security in Iraq -- and that Tehran would accept. Cheney's spokeswoman said after the vice president's meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the U.S. was willing to talk to Iran if the discussions just deal with Iraq and were held at the "ambassadorial level." It is the first time Tehran has gone for the offer. But spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride noted that the idea of such talks had been floated before, in what the State Department is calling the "Baghdad channel."
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe later said the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, would meet with Iranians in Baghdad in the next few weeks.
"The president authorized this channel because we must take every step possible to stabilize Iraq and reduce the risk to our troops even as our military continue to act against hostile Iranian-backed activity in Iraq," Johndroe said while traveling with President Bush in Virginia. At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said, "This is the same channel that has been open to both sides for some time. ... But it hasn't been use before in its most formal sense."
Little by little, the administration seems to be bowing to political pressure and accepting a recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to do more diplomatically to engage Iran and Syria. "I was heartened to see that the United States and Iran are finally, evidently, going to sit down and talk. I've been calling for engagement with Iran for four years," said Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"Iran is not going to do us any favors, but it's in their interest to find some common denominators here," Hagel said on "Face the Nation" on CBS.
Rice is seeking to build on a recent regional conference on Iraq that she attended with diplomats from Syria and Iran. The meeting, aimed at achieving a consensus to stabilize Iraq, did not produce the breakthrough for which Rice and others had hoped. The secretary promised the Iraqis the U.S. would follow up in trying to engage Iran and Syria and she did not rule out talks in the future at her level. The upcoming Baghdad meeting can be seen as an intermediate step.
"One needs to be very careful about confusing dialogue with progress," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He said huge differences remain -- on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, Iran's growing military capability and its role in Lebanon. "There is no meaningful prospect for a "grand bargain," in spite of some well-meaning voices," Cordesman said.
Some Arab states are concerned about predominantly Shiite Iran's recent efforts to extend its influence, not only in Shiite-majority Iraq, but also among other neighbors with large Shiite populations. In his travels, Cheney sought to reassure states such as Saudi Arabia, which is predominantly Sunni, and the moderate United Arab Emirates that the U.S. would serve as a counterbalance to ambitious Iran.
He pledged that "we'll keep the sea lanes open" and said the U.S. would join with allies to keep Iran "from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region." Cheney has emphasized links between Iran and sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill U.S. troops in Iraq.
Yet, while, Cheney was warmly received by Emirates leaders Saturday, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday to great fanfare. Aaron David Miller, a former State Department adviser on Mideast issues to both Republican and Democratic administrations, said the diplomatic dance between Washington and Tehran is a difficult and high-stakes one, especially for Saudi Arabia.
"The Saudis understand that if we end up with a crisis with Iran, either because the Israelis or the Americans use military force, that they're going to be extremely vulnerable to Iranian retaliation -- particularly if the Israelis use Iraqi, Saudi or Jordanian air space, which they would have to," Miller said.
Karim Sadjadpour, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said expectations should be "modest, given the depth of mutual mistrust and ill will which currently exists."
Interestingly, on Sunday, it was Cheney's staff -- not the White House or State Department -- that offered the first official confirmation of the upcoming talks.
That appeared to reassure some top Republicans. "Well, the vice president indicated as long as the discussions are about the Iraq security issue, the administration was comfortable with it. I don't see anything wrong with that. I think the Iranians are part of the problem in Iraq. To the extent that they want to discuss discontinuing that kind of mischievous behavior, I think that would be helpful," Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's GOP leader, said on "Late Edition" on CNN.(AP)
Beirut, 14 May 07, 14:00

Sfeir laments lack of unity among Christians
Daily Star staff
Monday, May 14, 2007
BKIRKI: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir voiced concern on Sunday about the lack of unity and continuous political bickering among Lebanese Christians. The patriarch was speaking during a meeting with a delegation from the Catholic Schools Alumni Association following Sunday mass.
His comments came on the heels of a rare meeting Friday with President Emile Lahoud to discuss upcoming presidential elections, which are scheduled for September.
"It is known to all that the situation in Lebanon is catastrophic, where the Lebanese are becoming more and more hostile and where everyone cares about their own personal interests rather than those of their country," Sfeir said. "Such an attitude is clearly pertinent among Christians."
Sfeir said that Lebanon's Christians "have lost their unity and are currently engaging in trivial fights among themselves." The situation was "deeply upsetting," he said.
"The Lebanese nowadays, and Christians in particular, are segregated into conflicting groups rather than being united for the well-being of their country," Sfeir said.
The patriarch said that principles such as "patriotism, tolerance and unity" ought to be "taught at school so that the Lebanese learn at an early age how to love and cherish their country, and this is likely to have us avoid mistakes similar to the one we committed in the past." Sfeir urged politicians "to use their foreign connections in a way that will bring benefit to the country, and not to use them as a tool for empowerment."At mass on Sunday at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Bkirki, Sfeir urged the Lebanese to "stand united" so as not to have Lebanon "vanish forever." "Let us all unite to preserve the message of coexistence and love that our country carries, through dialogue and mutual respect among us all," the patriarch said. - The Daily Star

Bush: U.S. Proud to be Leading 'Advance of Freedom' in Lebanon
President George Bush has said the United States was proud to be leading the "advance of freedom" in Lebanon and elsewhere as he celebrated the 400th anniversary of the founding of America's first permanent English settlement. "The advance of freedom is the great story of our time, and new chapters are being written every day, from Georgia and Ukraine, to Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon, to Afghanistan and Iraq," Bush said after touring Jamestown.
"As we celebrate the 400th anniversary of Jamestown to honor the beginnings of our democracy, it is a chance to renew our commitment to help others around the world realize the great blessings of liberty," Bush added. Bush underlined that the settlement planted the seeds of democracy and free enterprise in the New World, culminating in the English colonies' Declaration of Independence from the motherland in 1776. "From these humble beginnings, the pillars of a free society began to take hold. Private property rights encouraged ownership and free enterprise. The rule of law helped secure the rights of individuals," he said.(AFP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 14 May 07, 07:29

Saniora to Send Letter Asking U.N. to Establish Tribunal
Prime Minister Fouad Saniora will send a letter to the U.N. on Monday asking for the establishment of the international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes. The daily An Nahar said Saniora will send the letter within the coming few hours to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting to set up the court after attempts to ratify the draft law for the tribunal in parliament have failed.
Al-Mustaqbal also quoted Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh as saying the memorandum, which is to be signed by Saniora within the next few hours, calls on the U.N. to move on the international court. Hamadeh uncovered that the world body would take measures to ratify the tribunal starting mid next week.
As Safir, citing Western diplomatic sources in New York, said the U.N. was likely to approve creation of the court within the next 48 hours.
The sources said the Security Council was expected to meet on Tuesday and thereafter "unanimously" vote to approve the draft law to create the tribunal.
As Safir said the obvious question now was what the next phase would be like following set up of the tribunal in the wake of MP Saad Hariri's announcement of a fresh political initiative to enter into dialogue with the Hizbullah-led opposition. Beirut, 14 May 07, 07:31

U.S. Harmonizing Act in Dealing with Iran Despite Differences On Lebanon, Nukes
The prospect of direct U.S.-Iranian talks on Iraq represents an important shift in relations between the two adversaries, the Associated Press said in a news analysis.
It said the development comes during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to the region, where he is trying to convince moderate Arab states that the U.S. will stand firm against Tehran's regime. He also is seeking to build support for the delicate Iraqi government.
Cheney is only one part of a U.S. tag team, wrote Tom Raum, who has covered national and international affairs for The Associated Press since 1973. The second member, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seems to be playing on the other side of the street, Raum said.
Cheney has emphasized a hard line on Iran over the past week in stops in moderate Arab nations and talks to U.S. troops in Iraq and on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. He has urged Arab countries to do more to help stabilize the Iraqi government and hinted that Washington would work to keep Iran from dominating the region. Rice is leading a countervailing effort to reach out to Iran despite serious doubts whether there is anyone willing to reach back.
The two tracks crossed on Sunday. Iran's official news agency reported that the U.S. sought face-to-face meetings in Baghdad with the Iranians to discuss security in Iraq -- and that Tehran would accept.
Cheney's spokeswoman said after the vice president's meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the U.S. was willing to talk to Iran if the discussions just deal with Iraq and were held at the "ambassadorial level." It is the first time Tehran has gone for the offer. But spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride noted that the idea of such talks had been floated before, in what the State Department is calling the "Baghdad channel."
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe later said the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, would meet with Iranians in Baghdad in the next few weeks.
"The president authorized this channel because we must take every step possible to stabilize Iraq and reduce the risk to our troops even as our military continue to act against hostile Iranian-backed activity in Iraq," Johndroe said while traveling with President Bush in Virginia. At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said, "This is the same channel that has been open to both sides for some time. ... But it hasn't been used before in its most formal sense."
Little by little, the administration seems to be bowing to political pressure and accepting a recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to do more diplomatically to engage Iran and Syria.
"I was heartened to see that the United States and Iran are finally, evidently, going to sit down and talk. I've been calling for engagement with Iran for four years," said Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Iran is not going to do us any favors, but it's in their interest to find some common denominators here," Hagel said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. Rice is seeking to build on a recent regional conference on Iraq that she attended with diplomats from Syria and Iran. The meeting, aimed at achieving a consensus to stabilize Iraq, did not produce the breakthrough for which Rice and others had hoped.
The secretary promised the Iraqis the U.S. would follow up in trying to engage Iran and Syria and she did not rule out talks in the future at her level. The upcoming Baghdad meeting can be seen as an intermediate step. "One needs to be very careful about confusing dialogue with progress," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
He said huge differences remain -- on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, Iran's growing military capability and its role in Lebanon. "There is no meaningful prospect for a "grand bargain," in spite of some well-meaning voices," Cordesman said.
Some Arab states are concerned about predominantly Shiite Iran's recent efforts to extend its influence, not only in Shiite-majority Iraq, but also among other neighbors with large Shiite populations.
In his travels, Cheney sought to reassure states such as Saudi Arabia, which is predominantly Sunni, and the moderate United Arab Emirates that the U.S. would serve as a counterbalance to ambitious Iran.
He pledged that "we'll keep the sea lanes open" and said the U.S. would join with allies to keep Iran "from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region." Cheney has emphasized links between Iran and sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill U.S. troops in Iraq.
Yet, while, Cheney was warmly received by Emirates leaders Saturday, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday to great fanfare. Aaron David Miller, a former State Department adviser on Mideast issues to both Republican and Democratic administrations, said the diplomatic dance between Washington and Tehran is a difficult and high-stakes one, especially for Saudi Arabia.
"The Saudis understand that if we end up with a crisis with Iran, either because the Israelis or the Americans use military force, that they're going to be extremely vulnerable to Iranian retaliation -- particularly if the Israelis use Iraqi, Saudi or Jordanian air space, which they would have to," Miller said.
Karim Sadjadpour, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said expectations should be "modest, given the depth of mutual mistrust and ill will which currently exists."
Interestingly, on Sunday, it was Cheney's staff -- not the White House or State Department -- that offered the first official confirmation of the upcoming talks.
That appeared to reassure some top Republicans. "Well, the vice president indicated as long as the discussions are about the Iraq security issue, the administration was comfortable with it. I don't see anything wrong with that. I think the Iranians are part of the problem in Iraq. To the extent that they want to discuss discontinuing that kind of mischievous behavior, I think that would be helpful," Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's GOP leader, said on "Late Edition" on CNN.(AP) Beirut, 14 May 07, 14:00

Lahoud Warns Saniora Over Presidential Elections
President Emile Lahoud has warned Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government against continuing to rule Lebanon in case parliament failed to elect a new head of state in September. "If the time (to elect a new president) arrives and they fail to choose a president, I will be forced to take a lesser evil decision in stead of allowing an unconstitutional government to play the role of the president," Lahoud said in an interview with France 24 television.
His remarks were published in several Lebanese dailies on Monday. "I fear what may befall the Lebanese," in the event of failure to elect a new head of state at a parliamentary session scheduled for September 25, Lahoud added. He refused ratification of the international tribunal under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, saying this can only be applied in the absence of the Lebanese judiciary or in case of "Lebanese Genocide," as was the case in the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). ICTY was established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia since 1991, and to try their alleged perpetrators. The tribunal is located in The Hague in the Netherlands. Beirut, 14 May 07, 10:32

What America and Iran might do - and what the Lebanese must
Monday, May 14, 2007
Editorial- Daily Star
The announcement that American and Iranian officials will meet within the next few weeks in Baghdad to open high-level discussions on the security situation in Iraq marks the opening of a new avenue in the Middle East. The region, which has for the past four years been plagued by the looming threat of a military confrontation between Iran and the United States, is now being presented with the possibility that the two rival states could reach a tactical agreement that could form a basis for future negotiations, understandings and even eventual bilateral relations. Nowhere does this development have a greater potential to influence the course of events than in Lebanon, a country whose leaders often behave as though they are operating in an open theater of conflict between Tehran and Washington.
The news that the two arch-foes will sit face-to-face in an attempt to hammer out some of their differences begs an obvious question: If Iran and the US can talk, then why has it proven so impossible for Lebanese leaders from rival political camps, all of whom profess to put their homeland's interests first, to engage in direct dialogue, resolve their disputes and focus on advancing the development of this country? When it comes to resolving the country's host of problems, both sides appear unable to do anything at all without first receiving cues from their respective foreign backers.
In the latest of several attempts to mediate a resolution to the Lebanese political crisis, Iran and Saudi Arabia are reportedly engaged in crafting a plan to break the deadlock. Success in this effort, though welcome, would serve to further highlight the deficiencies of Lebanese leaders, who have been unable to achieve any progress on their own. Will the Lebanese people also have to wait for a new electoral law to be presented by the ambassadors of Tehran and Washington? Will we be asked to wait for Iranian, Saudi or other foreign officials to instruct our politicians that it is time to do something about our national debt? Or will our leaders finally grow up and acknowledge the fact that the responsibility for Lebanon's future rests with the Lebanese?

Lebanese politicians trade warnings over presidency
By Hani M. Bathish
Daily Star staff-Monday, May 14, 2007
BEIRUT: Amid veiled threats of the establishment of a parallel government emanating from Baabda, and warnings from Ain al-Tineh on Sunday of dire consequences should that happen, hopes dimmed that a consensus on the issue of the presidency would be reached any time soon. Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict XVI, have stressed the need to avoid leaving the presidential post vacant, urging the Lebanese to prevent the creation of two competing governments.
Quoting informed sources, local An-Nahar daily said on Saturday that a papal envoy would visit Lebanon to head off a possible crisis over the next presidential election. President Emile Lahoud warned on Sunday that if the time for the presidential election in Parliament, which is scheduled for September 25, arrives and "they fail to elect a new president, I will be forced to take a decision, that is the lesser of two evils, rather than allow an unconstitutional government to assume the role of the president."
Lahoud made his comments during an interview with France 24 television. He said that he fears what may befall the Lebanese in the event of a failure to elect a new president. Lahoud also rejected resorting to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter to establish a tribunal of to try suspects in the slaying of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Chapter 7 status would allow the court to begin work without parliamentary approval. Lahoud said Chapter 7 may only be invoked in the absence of the Lebanese judiciary and to prosecute mass murderers, as was the case in the former Yugoslavia.
Hizbullah MP Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, speaking to reporters Sunday, said that Lahoud would not surrender power to an unconstitutional government and warned of an impending constitutional crisis if the ruling majority elects a new president with only a simple majority in Parliament.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri vowed last week to convene the legislature to elect a new president, provided that a two-thirds majority of members attend the session. Berri, in an interview with Kuwait's Al-Anbaa newspaper on Sunday, expressed fears that Lahoud would set up an interim government if the parliamentary majority attempts to elect a president with a simple majority of MPs.
"In the event the majority violates the Constitution and elects a president with a half-plus-one majority, I fear President Lahoud will set up another government justifying his actions as protecting the Constitution; this is my real worry," Berri said. Asked if it would be possible to elect a new president if a quorum of two-thirds is not achieved on September 25, Berri said: "It would be very difficult if not impossible to do so, as in the first electoral session we need two-thirds of members of Parliament present, neither the opposition nor the majority possesses two-thirds of parliamentary seats."The speaker said that there was currently a new Saudi-Iranian initiative aimed at solving the political deadlock in Lebanon, but that the Arab League was absent from this effort.
In response to perceived opposition pressure against holding a presidential election, the Maronite Church announced a series of steps to guard against attempts to block the presidential election and the creation of the international tribunal.
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir has said that both the Maronite Church and the Vatican support an election without foreign interference.
During a surprise visit to Baabda Friday, Sfeir reportedly impressed on the president the importance of "facilitating the election of his successor" and that the church rejected all attempts leading to establishing two governments in Lebanon.
Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea, speaking to a student delegation from the Beirut Arab University on Sunday, stressed the importance of holding a presidential election to avoid disastrous consequences. Geagea said the only alternative to holding an election was for the Cabinet to assume the responsibilities of the president. He rejected this option, calling on MPs to attend the electoral session on September 25 as called for by the speaker.
He also voiced objection to proposals for a so-called "compromise candidate.""Our candidate will be from March 14 or from among those who support its political agenda," he said, adding that the candidate would be announced at a later date.
The LF leader said that Sfeir's visit to Lahoud was an attempt by the patriarch to guarantee a suitable environment for a normal election. "There are those trying to use president Lahoud and push him in a different direction such as setting up an interim government," Geagea said. Meanwhile, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun, speaking Friday at the annual dinner for physicians affiliated with the FPM, reiterated his view that the current Parliament is "unconstitutional and is incapable of electing a new president."