Last update - 00:00 04/01/2008
Lebanese ruling majority urges Arab states to halt Syria meddling
By News Agencies
BEIRUT - Lebanon's anti-Syrian ruling majority urged Arab ministers on Friday meeting in Cairo over the weekend to put pressure on Syria to end its interference in Lebanon and facilitate the election of a new president.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of the Syrian-backed incumbent Emile Lahoud ended on Nov. 23. The majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition have been unable to agree on a deal to elect a successor, though both sides have backed army chief General Michel Suleiman to fill the post.
"March 14 forces appeal to the Arab League to put pressure to lift the hand of the Syrian regime off Lebanon and help it elect a consensus president as soon as possible," the majority coalition, or March 14, said in a statement, reiterating its backing for Suleiman.
Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the crisis in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Saudi Arabia and Egypt back the ruling majority and the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
March 14 said Lebanon was facing a coup against the authorities and its political system by forces loyal to Syria and Iran.
Hezbollah, backed by Damascus and Tehran, said this week it would allow the election of a president only if the majority agree to giving the opposition veto power in the new government.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah also said the opposition would decide on its next move next week, hinting at civic action.
March 14 statement said the opposition was threatening strife and measures that would harm stability.
France and Syria ended this week two months of contacts over ways to end the Lebanese crisis, with Paris saying Damascus was not showing it was working for a consensus solution.
Syria responded by saying it was seeking such a solution but accused March 14 leader Saad al-Hariri and Saudi Arabia of foiling the French effort.
The Lebanese parliament is set to try for a 12th time to confirm Suleiman as president on Jan. 12 but looks unlikely to succeed as there is little sign of reconciliation between the rival sides. Electing a president requires a two-thirds quorum that neither camps hold.
Body of Palestinian militant found in refugee camp
Residents of a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon found the body of an Islamic militant Friday who had been tortured and killed, local Palestinian officials and doctors said.
The body of Saleh Azmi Abdullah, 28, was found in a vegetable market in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the city of Sidon, said Maher Shabayta, a local official with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.
Shabayta identified Abdullah as a member of the militant Jund al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of al-Qaida and has clashed with Fatah members and Lebanese troops based around the camp.
The body was taken to al-Nidaa hospital, where medical officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said Abdullah was subjected to electric shocks before he was strangled.
Jund al-Sham has been blamed or claimed responsibility for a number of bombings and gunbattles in Lebanon and Syria. Syrian officials have portrayed it as the most active militant group in their country.
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