Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Syria wants to control "all of Lebanon" and stressed that MPs should elect a new head of state even if Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman was dropped as a consensus candidate. Geagea, in remarks to LBC's Naharkum Saeed talk show, said: "We will not accept continued void (in the presidential office) and if Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman withdrew we will push towards an election of a new president by MPs because we are bound by article 74 of the constitution."He said stands by March 14 forces and U.S. President George Bush are "not identical. We want to elect Suleiman as a consensus president while Bush's address referred to other options."
Bush had called for the election of a new head of state for Lebanon by simple majority, an option that the March 14 alliance is not resorting to in an effort to avert a violent confrontation with the Hizbullah-led opposition.
Geagea urged Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to "set aside all differences and let's sit and talk ... with the aim of putting an end to the ongoing crisis." He said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is "clever in marketing verbal stands, without delivering on them, in order not to elect Gen. Suleiman."
Geagea accused the opposition of being a "follower of Syria for proposing a basket of conditions that are identical to what has been set by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem."