BEIRUT, Aug 21 (AFP) - Some 100 Lebanese from across the country's professions launched a campaign Saturday against a change in the constitution which would allow a second term for President Emile Lahoud, as Syria is thought to want.
A statement entitled "for the Defence of the Republic and the Constitution", of which AFP obtained a copy, said that "any attempt to change the constitution to facilitate the renewal, prolongation or re-election" of Lahoud "is nothing but the perpetuation of the current situation of dependence" on Syria.
It was signed by university teachers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and former ministers and members of parliament, both Muslim and Christian.
"Only democratic change, respect for the principle of alternation of governments, will enable Lebanon to emerge from the disastrous situation it has known" since the end of the civil war in 1990 imposed Syrian domination.
In a flurry of consultations last week Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met some of his leading allies on the Lebanese political scene to discuss the possibility of keeping Lahoud in power for another six years.
While Lahoud is widely seen as Assad's preferred candidate, Lebanese press reports indicate that the Syrian leader would be happy as long as the new president continued Lahoud's policies.
But many, including Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, have rejected any parliamentary amendment of the constitution to allow Lahoud, whose mandate expires in November, to stay on.
Other presidential candidates have complained that Syria, which still maintains some 16,000 troops in Lebanon after intervening in the civil war in 1976, has become the sole decision-maker in naming the Lebanese head of state.
The new US ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman, was quoted as saying on Wednesday: "The Lebanese constitution stipulates that a new president must be elected every six years and constitutions must be respected."
Washington is unhappy with Lahoud for exactly the reasons that Damascus sees him as an ally. He has accepted the continued Syrian military presence in the country, which the United States now calls an occupation, and also refuses to disarm the Shiite Hezbollah militia which holds sway in southern Lebanon and which Washington considers a terrorist organisation.
Washington in May increased pressure on Syria by imposing economic sanctions, accusing it of sponsoring terrorism and seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction.