ARMENIA TO STRENGTHEN DIPLOMATIC PRESENCE IN LEBANON

Armenia intends to strengthen its diplomatic presence in Lebanon, RA Foreign Ministry official said Thursday. “We will send one more diplomat to Lebanon next week, thus bringing the number of diplomats to three,” said Armen Melkonyan, head of the Middle East division at the Armenian MFA. “The decision is conditioned by the complicated internal political situation in the country,” said, adding that the post of Armenia’s Ambassador to Lebanon is still vacant, Novosti Armenia reports. By a President’s decree of March 26, 2008, Vahan Ter-Ghevondyan was released from the post of Armenia’s ambassador to Lebanon he had occupied since January 2006. Fierce clashes escalated in Beirut a week ago between Sunni supporters of the government and loyalists of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group, after Hezbollah’s leader said the government had declared war by threatening to shut down the group’s private telephone network. Hezbollah gunmen melted off the streets of Beirut Saturday, heeding an army call to pull the fighters out after the Shiite militants demonstrated their military might in a power struggle with the U.S.-backed government. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in his first public statement since sectarian clashes erupted on Wednesday, said Lebanon can no longer tolerate Hezbollah having weapons. He called on the army to restore law and order and remove gunmen from the streets. Despite his tough talk, Saniora made a key concession to the Hezbollah-led opposition that would effectively shelve the two government decisions that sparked the fighting. Muslim West Beirut was mostly calm a day after Hezbollah and its allies seized control of neighborhoods from Sunnis loyal to the government. Most Hezbollah gunmen had pulled out, leaving small bands of their Shiite Amal allies to patrol the streets. While tensions in the capital appeared to be defusing, violence spread and intensified in other parts of the country. At least 12 people were killed and 20 wounded when pro- and anti-government groups fought in a remote region of northern Lebanon, Lebanese security and hospital officials said. It was the heaviest toll for a single clash since fighting began. At least 37 people have been killed in four days of clashes — the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

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