Iran FM in Lebanon as Suleiman elected President

Iran Focus: Tehran, May 26 – Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki travelled to Beirut on Sunday to attend the parliamentary session for the election of Lebanon's new president, state television reported.

Iran Focus

Tehran, May 26 – Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki travelled to Beirut on Sunday to attend the parliamentary session for the election of Lebanon's new president, state television reported.

The Lebanese Parliament on Sunday elected army chief General Michel Suleiman as president, following a deal made in Doha between government supporters and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Regional allies Iran and Syria are both accused by the United States of being state sponsors of terrorism. The government in Beirut accuses both countries of meddling in Lebanon's internal affairs.

The UN Security Council decided in 2007 to set up a tribunal to prosecute the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was assassinated by a truck bomb on 14 February 2005.

Saad al-Hariri, the Majority leader in the Lebanese Parliament and the son of Rafik al-Hariri, accuses Syria of orchestrating the murder.

Due to factional feuding between al-Hariri’s Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition, Lebanon had been without a president since November 2007 when the term of Syrian ally Emile Lahoud ended.