Michel Suleiman sworn in as president of Lebanon

Borzou DaragahiTimes Staff Writer

BEIRUT -- Backed by most of Lebanon's major communities and their international patrons, former army chief of staff Michel Suleiman ascended to the presidency of this volatile Mediterranean country today. The 60-year-old Maronite Christian general took the oath of office amid high hopes that he would help heal the country's festering political rift between the U.S. and Saudi-backed government and the opposition, led by Hezbollah, the Iranian and Syrian-backed Shiite militant and political movement.

Suleiman's election by lawmakers, viewed as a temporary fix to a months-long political crisis, came days after Hezbollah gunmen stormed West Beirut and subsequently won an agreement that it remain armed and have enough Cabinet seats to veto major government decisions.

Many hope, however, that Suleiman, with strong ties both to Hezbollah and the support of the Western-leaning March 14 movement, will be able to pull the country together.

Fierce bursts of celebratory gunfire and canons erupted throughout the capital after the parliamentary vote and fireworks filled the night sky.

"I call on you all, political forces and citizens, to build a Lebanon we all agree on, setting the interests of Lebanon above our individual interests," he told lawmakers and assembled dignitaries in a televised address. "We paid a dear price for our national unity. Let's preserve it."

Present in the parliamentary chamber were officials representing all the major foreign powers that have tried to resolve the crisis, including a delegation of U.S. lawmakers and the foreign ministers of Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and France. All consider Lebanon part of their cultural, economic and political sphere of influence.

Hezbollah and its allies crippled the government by pulling out of the Cabinet and setting up protest tents around the capital in late 2006. They demanded veto power over government decisions. The crisis deepened last November when President Emile Lahoud's term expired without a successor. Hezbollah's audacious military takeover of West Beirut this month, after a Cabinet decision that scrutinized the group's telecommunications and intelligence assets, ultimately forced the government to grant it the veto power it coveted.