Lebanon in New Phase With Suleiman

Source: Alalam.ir, 25-05-2008
BEIRUT--Head of Lebanon's National Information Council said Sunday that election of Michel Suleiman as Lebanon's new president has entered the country into a new phase.
"Suleiman's election as the country's new president brought Lebanon into a new phase, thus helping solve many problems facing the country," Ghalib Qandil told Alalam Sunday.
He said Lebanon has entered a new phase by re-formation of legal institutions on the basis of the logic of solidarity and participation on the basis of Doha deal.
"When Michel Suleiman undertakes his legal authority and starts efforts to form a national unity government, the atmosphere of political challenges and conflicts gripping the country over the past three years will come to a halt," he said.
He added that Suleiman's assumption of presidency will not of course mean end of all political conflicts in Lebanon and he is determined to make efforts to get partnership of all essential components of the society that in the course of which decisions will be made on all core issues on the basis of consensus.
He said that to that end, the president will try to guarantee domestic peace and independence based on the Constitution.
Stressing that Suleiman will safeguard irrevocable principles of Lebanon, Qandil said the country's constitution does not give the president the permission to have a special plan and seek its implementation in defiance of the existing equations and balances.
Lebanon's parliament is set to vote in army chief General Michel Suleiman as the country's 11th president on Sunday, filling a post left vacant for six months.
Sunday's election follows drawn-out talks between rival parties to end their standoff that had left Lebanon without a president since November when Emile Lahoud's term ended.