Word: syrian
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...Hajj's murder came two days after a parliamentary session to elect a new President was postponed for the eighth time, and is certain to aggravate tensions between rival pro- and anti-Syrian factions. The bombing, said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, "is a message to the Lebanese that the situation in Lebanon will remain fragile and that security will remain a target...
...Lebanon has been without a President since November 23, when Emile Lahoud stepped down. General Michel Suleiman, the commander of the Lebanese army, has been selected as a consensus candidate agreeable to the anti-Syrian March 14 parliamentary majority as well as the pro-Syrian opposition. But his election has become mired in squabbles over the process of amending the constitution to allow Suleiman to move directly into the presidential palace, forgoing the customary two-year cooling-off period for senior civil servants. The election has been rescheduled for December 17, although analysts suspect that the presidential vacuum could continue...
...international coalition headed by the U.S. and France is heavily engaged in mediating an agreement over the presidency. France has been particularly active, with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner spending much of the past three weeks in Beirut shuttling between bickering Lebanese politicians while other French officials have consulted the Syrian leadership. In reaction to the bomb attack, a clearly exasperated Kouchner said it was a "cowardly attack that shows a clear intention to cause instability," adding that the correct response is to proceed with the presidential election...
Once again, instability may come at the hands of Washington. Since 2005, the U.S. has lent the pro-Western government support, as Lebanon teetered on the edge of chaos, wracked by a war between Hizballah and Israel, battles with al-Qaeda-style militants, further assassinations of anti-Syrian politicians, economic stagnation and political gridlock. But now the Administration seems to be having a change of heart on Syria - recognizing that, like it or not, Damascus remains integral to almost every challenge in the Middle East: Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Israel-Palestine. "The Administration was only using a policy of sticks [against...
Small comfort, perhaps, to the anti-Syrian legislators in Lebanon who fear - rightly or wrongly - that history is repeating itself, with Washington once more sacrificing their interests on the altar of political expediency...