BEIRUT: Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called for political “reconciliation” and urged Lebanon’s politicians to put “the past behind” them. Nasrallah’s remarks came as he urged Shiites to support Hizbullah’s decision to put up a candidate for Sunday’s Mount Lebanon polls on the electoral list of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and former foes, the right wing Christian Lebanese Forces.

Hizbullah’s leader said: “Our alliance is based on forgetting the past. I am calling for gathering around a slogan said by late president and Phalanges leader Bashir Gemayel during the civil war, the slogan of ‘Lebanon is 10,452 square meters.'”

Lebanon remains under international pressure to disarm Hizbullah which last month claimed it had 12,000 rockets aimed at northern Israel.

Washington insists the resistance group a terrorist organization, but Hizbullah’s believes its clean sweep in last week’s round of voting is proof of public support for the group’s right to maintain its arms.

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer, UNITED NATIONS – A top U.N. envoy was instructed Monday to travel to Syria “as soon as possible” to see President Bashar Al-Assad about Lebanon, but U.N. officials would not say why the mission was deemed urgent. The announcement that Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked Terje Roed-Larsen to travel to Damascus came three days after the United States said it would like the U.N. Security Council to expand an international inquiry into former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination to include the killing of an anti-Syrian journalist.Roed-Larsen stepped down as Annan’s top U.N. Mideast envoy last year, but agreed to become his special envoy for implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which was adopted in October and called for Syria to withdraw all military forces and intelligence operatives. It also called for disarmament of all Lebanese militias.

BEIRUT (AFP) – The pro-Syrian Hezbollah coalition scored a landslide win in round two of Lebanon’s elections and claimed a clear mandate for anti-Israel guerrillas to keep their weapons in defiance of international calls for disarmament. The mighty Shiite Muslim Hezbollah and the rival movement Amal, campaigning on a pledge to keep on with the armed resistance against Israel, won all 23 seats in southern Lebanon, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa said Monday. In the first elections to be held since Syria was forced by intense global pressure to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April, the two groups maintained their grip on the volatile southern region still intermittently rocked by border clashes with Israel.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Voters go to the polls in south Lebanon on Sunday in the second phase of parliamentary elections with the country rattled by the assassination of a prominent anti-Syrian journalist. A slate led by Syria’s allies Hizbollah and Amal groups looks assured of victory in the Shi’ite Muslim heartland bordering Israel but the killing of columnist Samir Kassir on Thursday has again raised the stakes at the polls.The disparate anti-Syrian opposition put some of its differences aside to join voices in blaming Syria and its security allies for the killing and called for the resignation of President Emile Lahoud, a close ally of Damascus.Several opposition figures said his resignation would be the new parliament’s main task after the May 29-June 19 elections. The opposition called on Friday for a gathering at a crossroads leading to Lahoud’s presidential palace on Monday “to declare the responsibility of the chief of the Lebanese-Syrian security regime for the series of assassinations.”

A prominent Lebanese journalist was today assassinated when a bomb exploded in his car, police said. Officers said Samir Kassir was killed when a device left under the driver’s seat exploded. He was a columnist for An-Nahar, a leading newspaper frequently critical of Syria and the former Lebanese government that was allied with Damascus. The explosion, which happened in the Christian Ashrafieh neighbourhood of Beirut this morning, set the car on fire. Mr Lahoud’s spokesman, Rafik Shalala, described the murder as a “grave incident”, and said the president had ordered an investigation. “It’s better not to make accusations until the circumstances are uncovered,” he told the al-Arabiya television channel. To view pictures pls click read more.

Arms challenge awaits Hizbollah after Lebanon poll

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is arguably Lebanon’s most powerful leader and the prowess of his Hizbollah fighters gives him prestige far beyond its borders.

He has nothing to fear when Lebanon’s phased parliamentary polls move south on Sunday, with victory assured for Hizbollah in alliance with Amal, the other main pro-Syrian group in the Shi’ite Muslim heartlands bordering Israel.

The Amal-Hizbollah “steamroller” is set to sweep the region’s 23 seats in the second stage of elections that began in mainly Sunni Muslim Beirut last Sunday with a landslide win for the son of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

But Nasrallah will need all his political skill to deal with changes in Lebanon now that Syrian troops are gone and to fend off U.S.-led pressure on Hizbollah to abandon its weapons.

Key facts about Lebanon’s Hizbollah

BEIRUT, June 2 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Hizbollah movement is contesting parliamentary elections in the south on Sunday in alliance with Amal, the other major Shi’ite Muslim group.

The Hizbollah-Amal slate could sweep all 23 seats allotted to south Lebanon in the 128-member parliament.

Following are key facts about Hizbollah:

* Hizbollah, or Party of God, was founded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It was inspired by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who vowed holy war on Israel and its Western allies.

* Funded and armed by Tehran, the group began a guerrilla war to evict Israeli forces from Lebanon. Shadowy groups linked to Hizbollah launched suicide attacks on Western targets and took Westerners hostage in Beirut. The most spectacular attack was a suicide bombing that destroyed the U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut in October 1983, killing 241 servicemen.

* Hizbollah announced its political platform in 1985, aiming at turning Lebanon into an Iranian-style republic, a goal since dropped. It fought rival Lebanese groups until the civil war ended in 1990 and kept up attacks on Israeli occupation forces.

CHRONOLOGY-Key events in Lebanon since Hariri’s killing LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) – Samir Qaseer, a prominent anti-Syrian journalist of An-Nahar newspaper was killed in Beirut on Thursday when a bomb destroyed his car, security sources said. Here is a chronology of the main events in Lebanon since former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed in […]

LEBANON: Blast kills Lebanese journalist

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A car bomb exploded in a Christian area of Beirut Thursday, killing a prominent journalist known for his opposition to Syria’s involvement in Lebanon, according Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.The journalist, identified as Samir Kassir, wrote for the Lebanese daily newspaper An Nahar — A publication often critical of Syria..An unidentified woman was wounded in the blast, officials said. Lebanon is in the midst of parliamentary elections that began May 29 and run through June 19. The explosion occurred mid-morning in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Beirut, setting the car on fire and killing the occupant. Police, who cordoned off the area around the charred car, said the bomb was placed under the driver’s seat. Kassir’s body lay slumped on one side inside the blasted vehicle, an Alfa-Romeo sedan.