Lebanese Christian and Armenian Leaders in US to meet for talks on Lebanon

(BIRMINGHAM, MI) - Lebanese Christian and Armenian Leaders will meet this month to discuss the current situation in Lebanon ahead of next month's Presidential election to replace the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. Led by former Washington Senior Advisor & Capitol Hill Press Secretary John Akouri and Edgar Hagopian, Chairman of the Armenian Assembly of America Great Lakes Regional Council, the meeting will also address the role of the Armenian community in Sunday's by-election in the Metn district. The outcome of that poll witnessed a majority of Armenian Lebanese voting for a candidate with party ties to Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. The US State Department says that Iran ranks as the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorist organizations and along with its terrorist allies, has been branded by President George W. Bush a member of the 'axis of evil' arming to threaten the peace of the world. In 2003, the President signed the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act. Congress passed the Act to sanction Syria for its support for terrorism, its occupation of Lebanon, weapons of mass destruction programs, illegal imports of Iraqi oil, and its role in the ongoing security problems in the Middle East. Hezbollah is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization. It has been linked to attacks against US and other Western targets, including the 1983 bombings of US Marine barracks that killed 241 peace-keepers who were asleep at the time. Reports indicate that the leading Armenian political party known as Tashnag and their allies resorted to electoral fraud in several areas, including their enclave of Burj Hammoud. Such fraud, the reports say, included voting by the deceased and by electors who had long emigrated from Lebanon.