BEIRUT, Lebanon, October 18 (Lebanonwire) -- Lebanese Forces (LF) Leader Samir Geagea announced from France that the next Lebanese President shouldn’t be imposed on the Lebanese because he would then lose his legitimacy as a head of state, daily AL Mustaqbal said Tuesday.

While in Paris, Geagea met with the Future Movement (FM) leader Saad Hariri, agreeing to create a joint follow-up committee to develop strategies that transition the country into a new phase of security, social, political and economic institutional developments, building on the achievements of last March 14th demonstrations that led to a massive win in Parliament by the opposition.

Geagea also met with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a day after the LF leader commemorated the 13th of October, 1990 with General Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement supporters in Paris, where he announced his imminent return to Lebanon following the publishing of the UN report’s findings into the former Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder probe.

“The Lebanese government has to be balanced and its president elected and not imposed on the Lebanese by any internal or external power, because otherwise he loses his legality as the country’s top leader,” Geagea announced on Monday, referring to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

Geagea said the president had to have the freedom to think and act in a balanced and judicious manner. “Despite what some people might believe, a weak president does not serve anyone’s interests,” Geagea said, adding, “we need to reevaluate our constitutional institutions in a similar fashion.”

Meanwhile, the FM will today pay visits to the American and Algerian embassies to call for establishing an international court to prosecute the culprits behind the Hariri murder, in a first move towards contacting all embassies of countries that are members of the UN Security Council.

Recently, the FM and its leader Saad Hariri were themselves accused by Ath Thawra Syrian daily of murdering the late Hariri and on Monday, the newspaper continued its attack referring to the “combination of money, politics and media, resulting in masking the truth and twisting it.” “This alliance of powers intersects with strategic US-Zionist plans,” the paper said.

Copyright © 1999-2005 Lebanonwire^®.com. All rights reserved.