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Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has postponed a parliament session to elect the president of the republic for the 20th time. The new election date is now set for June 10. The announcement of the postponement comes a day before ( May 13) the Parliament was scheduled to meet to choose a new president.


Lebanon has been without a president since the pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud stepped down last November at the end of his term. Lebanon has been witnessing armed violence in the last few days by the Hezbollah-led opposition against the government loyalists , not seen since the end of the civil war, which has resulted in the killing of 60 people and the injuring of over 200. The ruling majority has described Hezbollah violence " a coup against the state"

The rival politicians have agreed agreed on army chief General Michel Suleiman as a consensus president but failed to elect him because they could not agree on the shape of the new government and the electoral law. The Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah led opposition , of which speaker Berri is a key member is demanding veto power in the new cabinet , a demand the ruling majority has rejected.

Copyright Ya Libnan

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