Heated parliamentary rivalry in Lebanon

The new alliance maintained between former leader of the Lebanese army Michael Aoun and the Druze leader Talal Arsalan will intensify rivalry with Walid Junblat who is expected to alley himself with Hizbullah which has one seat in Baabda circle.

Worthy mentioning that the Lebanese parliamentary elections will be held in stages, the first of which will start tomorrow in Beirut's three circles, to be followed by the two circles of the south on June 5, and the circle of the Mount and the Bekaa on June 12, before these elections will be concluded on June 19.

In another development the international delegation in charge of verifying the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri started on Thursday its mission in Beirut after the arrival of its chief investigator D. Mehlis coming from New York.

Mehlis, whose delegation includes 40 investigators and administrators said he needs the support of the Lebanese in order to disclose the reality as soon as possible.

Mehlis will have a three months time to complete his investigation according to UN Security Council resolution no. 1595 but if it is found out he needs more time the UN Security Council will give him an additional three months.