Lahoud's speech on Lebanon's independence day

Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud warned that the Middle East had come under dangerous and crucial plots, the latest of which was the attempt to deny the Palestinian the right to return home and to settle them in their host countries.

Lahoud, in a speech broadcast on the national radio and television on Friday marking the 60th anniversary of the Independence Day, said the "settlement plot ( for the Palestinian refugees) was a conspiracy against all ArabsÉit gives the excuse to Israel to expel the remaining Palestinians and do away with the (Palestinian ) issue and identity."

The Lebanese president stressed that a national unanimous stance would thwart such attempts exactly as his country did in liberating its lands through the option of resistance and with the cooperation of Syria.