Syria Today: Assad Declares Victory and a Fight Against Israel
Friday, May 31, 2013 at 14:57 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran See also Syria Analysis: A 5-Point Guide to Assad Interview --- Is He Right To Declare Victory?
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Thursday's Syria Today: Last Chance for Opposition "Unity" in Istanbul Talks
Lebanese Parliament Delays Elections to November 2014
Lebanon's Parliament has voted to extend its mandate and delay elections scheduled for June after failing to adopt a new electoral law.
The motion for a 17-month extension was passed unanimously by the 98 members of the 128-seat house who attended on Friday. It said the delay was due to "the security situation in several Lebanese regions that gives rise to political escalation and division which often take on confessional forms".
Fuad Siniora, the opposition head in parliament, said: "We were forced to vote on this bad project to avoid a vacuum and after unrest in several regions and the serious negative development" of Hezbollah's involvement in the Syria conflict.
Amid the months-long delay over a new electoral law, Prime Minister Tamman Salam, who was named on 6 April, has been unable to form a new Government because of divisions over Syria.