Parliament to elect Lebanon’s new president next week

PanARMENIAN.Net - An aide to the speaker of the Lebanese parliament said that a parliamentary session to elect the country's new president has been set for next week, according to the Associated Press.

Aide Mohammed Ballout said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri made the announcement Wednesday, April 16.

Ballout said the session will be held next Wednesday, April 23.

According to Lebanon's sectarian-based power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim.

Politicians have clashed over who should take the role after the six-year term of the current president, Michel Suleiman ends. Much of the bickering is related to the war in neighboring Syria.

Suleiman is seen as hostile to the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah, whose fighters are battling alongside forces of President Bashar Assad in Syria.