ROME, FEB. 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- General Michel Aoun, who headed the transition military government in Lebanon from 1988-1990, is optimistic about his homeland. "It is very clear to me that the Lebanon is a message of peaceful coexistence," he said during a visit in Rome. Aoun was visiting the Lebanese community here and attending meetings in the Vatican. ZENIT was able to receive his insights on the Mideast and other topics. After almost 15 years of exile in France, where he founded the multiconfessional Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese general returned to his homeland last May 7 to play a leading role again in the future of his country.

Last week, Benedict XVI analyzed coexistence between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon with Fouad Siniora, the Sunni Muslim president of the Lebanese Council of Ministers. Q: At the general audience, you spoke for a few minutes with Benedict XVI. Did you already know Joseph Ratzinger? Aoun: I knew him only by name and by his office. I know that he participated much in the elaboration of Catholic doctrine. I met him for the first time. It was really beneficent for me to receive his blessing. I know that he will always have a thought for Lebanon, that he will defend it, he who is the greatest moral authority in the world; and this will help Lebanon much.

BEIRUT (AFP) – US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Lebanon, keeping up US pressure on Syria and pointedly avoiding any encounter with President Emile Lahoud. Amid stringent security measures in Beirut, Rice met leaders from the Lebanese parliamentary majority in a bid to shore up the government’s drive for reform and full sovereignty.

She also vehemently reaffirmed Washington’s call for Syria to cooperate fully with the inquiry into the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri as the head of the probe held a new round of talks in Damascus."The sole purpose of this trip is to express support for the Lebanese people and for the Lebanese government as they try to recover fully their sovereignty and they continue their efforts to reform," Rice told reporters.During the lightning visit, Rice met officials including Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, President of the Chamber Nabih Berre, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, and parliament majority leader Saad Hariri and Jounblatt simultaneously.

BEIRUT (AFP) – The entourage of Lebanon’s under-fire President Emile Lahoud has hit back at moves in parliament to oust him, accusing former colonial power France of being behind the "coup" plot.

A source close to Lahoud charged late Saturday that French President Jacques Chirac had set up a working group under his chairmanship charged with working with anti-Syrian forces in Lebanon "to provoke a coup d’etat against the constitution and the (1989) Taef accords" that ended the 1975-90 civil war.

"I deplore the French president’s determination to meddle personally in Lebanese affairs," the source told AFP.Anti-Damascus politicians, who have held a majority in parliament since Lebanon last year held its first elections in three decades free of Syrian troops, on Thursday launched a petition in the legislature calling for Lahoud to step down by March 14.

SESTRIERE, Italy – Almost everyone who meets Chirine Njeim for the first time, looks into her blue-green eyes and says, "You’re from Beirut?"Eventually, they see the skis and snow pants and boots and red winter jacket with the word Lebanon across the back, and say, "An Olympic skier from Lebanon?""A lot of people are confused," Njeim said. "I can understand that."

Lebanon, land of camels and sun and sand, also has mountains, snow, six ski resorts and light-eyed 21-year-old Njeim. She learned to ski at age 3, became good enough to compete internationally and developed anorexia in her zeal to be even better.Now recovered and up to 130 pounds – 46 more than her one-time dip to 84 preceding the Salt Lake City Olympics – Njeim (pronounced nJIM) is one of two Turin Olympians representing Beirut. The other, Patrick Antaki, is a 41-year-old skeleton slider who lives in Plano, Texas, and has U.S.-Lebanese citizenship.Njeim carried the Lebanese flag as the only Olympian from her country at the 2002 Winter Games, when she was starting to recover and barely weighed 100 pounds and was "terrified that I’d fall and trip with it," she said.

By Mayssa el khazen, Islamic radicalism first erupted in Lebanon following the 1979 Iranian revolution and 1982 Israeli invasion.  These two events marked the start of Hizbullah, a movement that would acquire the support of the Lebanese Shiaa and that would take on a crucial and defining post in Lebanese politics.  Hizbullah, meaning the Party of God and backed by Iran, emerged to become an important and pivotal force in Middle Eastern politics in general and particularly in Lebanese society.  Amal, a Shiaa movement which means