Word: lebanon
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Welcomed by a 21-gun salute and a military band, Michel Suleiman, Lebanon's new President, took up residence Monday in the modern concrete-and-glass presidential palace set among the hilly suburbs of Beirut...
...election a day earlier promised an end to 19 months of grave political crisis, assassinations and sectarian street battles that brought this tiny Mediterranean state to the brink of civil war. It also marks a new chapter in Lebanon's tortured history, one in which the Iran-backed militant group Hizballah is now recognized as the country's dominant political and military force - at Washington's expense. Proof of that was quick in coming: Suleiman's first official meeting as Lebanon's head of state was scheduled to be with Manuchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister of Iran...
Most Lebanese are breathing a sigh of relief that civil war was averted after the violent clashes of two weeks ago, but Suleiman faces some unenviable challenges in the weeks and months ahead to preserve that peace and stability. Suleiman, 59, is the 12th president of Lebanon and a Maronite Christian, like all his predecessors, due to a sectarian power-sharing formula devised in 1943 when Lebanon gained independence. Since 1989, when the formula was adjusted, the President in Lebanon does not hold executive power - that authority belongs to the Prime Minister - but Suleiman stands to play an influential role...
...Lebanon A Deal at Last...
After an 18-month stalemate punctuated by recent violence, Lebanon's political factions reached a power-sharing deal that will install army General Michel Suleiman as President. The pact also grants significant new powers to militant group Hizballah, which drew criticism from Osama bin Laden in a recent audiotape for lacking the strength to battle Israel...