President EMILE LAHOUD (Lebanon): Hezbollah is very strong because they believe in what they're doing.
Lebanon's President, Emile Lahoud, is a staunch ally of Syria who opposed the Cedar Revolution.
Lebanon's presidency has been vacant since pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term ended late last year.
The presidency has been vacant since pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term ended in November.
Sniffing a chance to divide the opposition, Mr Lahoud's remaining men are fanning sectarian flames.
He said Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Salim Hoss had both agreed to the move.
Mr Hariri has long feuded with Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, whose mandate was due to expire last month.
In addition, the report hints that Emile Lahoud, the pro-Syrian president of Lebanon, might also have been in on the plot.
But the UN report claims that Mr Lahoud received a phone call from one of the conspirators minutes before the bombing.
But he again fell out with his pro-Syrian government colleagues during the crisis over the extension of President Lahoud's term in office.
Like outgoing President Emile Lahoud, such a leader will work to prevent Lebanon from extricating itself from Iranian and Syrian influence and control.
"We have hit a point of zero violations of the line, " Mr Roed-Larsen told reporters on Monday after meeting Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.
Commentators warn that if the Lebanese Parliament does not elect a pro-Syrian presidential candidate next week, then Lahoud is liable to call general elections.
"The Secretary-General and President Lahoud agreed that when we hit this point of zero violations Unifil should be redeployed in the south, " said Mr Larsen.
When he left power in 1998, it came about partly because Hariri was reluctant to play second fiddle to President Emile Lahoud, a former army chief.
Though Mr Lahoud can no longer count on the army, which has already disobeyed orders to crush the demonstrators, his security chiefs are continuing their reign.
Also looming in the next few months is the election by parliament of a (Maronite Christian) president to replace the pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud whose term ends on 25 November.
BBC: NEWS | Middle East | One year on: Lebanon political paralysis
He was twice prime minister but fell out with Mr Lahoud and left office in 2004 to campaign for an end to Syria's military and intelligence presence in Lebanon.
He never overtly came out against Syria in the dispute, but his resignation in October 2004 was taken as a clear protest against the Syrian pressure to keep Mr Lahoud in office.
Ms. AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB (Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Middle East Center): I recall when Lahoud became president, people were very optimistic about his, you know, his tenure - at the beginning of his tenure.
And then there are those who have postponed all their plans, from going on holiday to buying new clothes, until after 24 November - the date on which the current president, pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud is meant to leave office.
The only clear moral from the first round of voting was that the fortunes of Emile Lahoud, the pro-Syrian president, are waning, while those of Rafiq Hariri, a former prime minister and billionaire with equally strong Syrian ties, are on the rise.
So Christian Maronite leaders, including their patriarch, have rallied to prevent the Druze leader anointing his own man as president, a post the constitution allots to one of their own, even though uneasy about the continuing rule of their co-religionist, President Emile Lahoud, who is seen as a stooge of his Syrian counterpart, Bashir Assad.
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