by Selim Yassine
BEIRUT, Aug 28 (AFP) - Lebanon's cabinet bowed Saturday to powerbroker Syria's demands to approve a bill allowing President Emile Lahoud to seek re-election, in the face of opposition from a growing number of influential Lebanese and several major foreign powers.
The bill amending the constitution to enable Lahoud to defy presidential term limits and stay on for another three years beyond the usual six must be submitted to parliament, which also elects the president from among the Christian community.
The cabinet approved the bill in a special session that lasted only 20 minutes, Information Minister Michel Samaha said.
Twenty-four ministers voted in favor, including Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who had been strongly opposed to his rival Lahoud continuing in office and said he would rather commit political "suicide" than bend to the will of Damascus. There were only three votes against.
Hariri had been summoned to Damascus by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and met with the powerful head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, General Rostom Ghazali, in the two days leading up to the vote.
Lahoud has said he was willing to stand for another term, and Syria's overwhelming political influence in Lebanon, where it has thousands of troops, means it can also count on strong support in parliament.
Samaha said Lahoud told the cabinet the "regional situation is exceptional and delicate." He said Lebanon faced a number of dangers, "notably Israeli threats as well as the plan to settle definitively" in Lebanon the Palestinian refugees already living there.
He then withdraw from the meeting and turned over chair to Hariri, who took up Lahoud's argument, confirming that the "region is going through a dangerous phase, which requires exceptional measures, notably a constitutional amendment to extend for three years" Lahoud's mandate.
The cabinet also issued a decree calling for an extraordinary session of parliament to begin Monday to debate the amendment. The election of the new president would take place before Lahoud's term expires at the end of November.
In the past nine years, two constitutional amendments on the presidency have been sought by Syria and voted through parliament.
In 1995, the presidential term of Elias Hraoui was extended for three years.
Three years later, Lahoud was able to stand for president after the rules were changed, because he had not resigned as head of the armed forces soon enough to be eligible.
But a growing number of Lebanese religious and political figures are opposed to Lahoud standing for re-election, with Christian and Muslim leaders showing rare unity against Syria's steamroller tactics.
"The Syrian decision is an attack on Lebanese sovereignty and shows a lack of respect for the Lebanese," opposition MP Nassib Lahoud said in a statement, charging the move would have serious economic and political consequences.
Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, who has the support of many Christian deputies, as well as the Shiite and Sunni Muslim muftis, have sprung to the defence of the constitution that was born out of 1989 peace accords which ended 15 years of civil war, and opposed Lahoud's candidacy.
An Arab diplomatic source said Damascus acted after seeing both the United States and European Union mobilizing on the question and that Washington had closed the door to negotiations on the matter.
"The United States believes strongly that the best interests of both Lebanon and Syria are served by a positive and constructive relationship, based upon principles of mutual respect and non-intervention, between two neighboring sovereign and independent states," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday.
"This includes respect for the freedom of the Lebanese people to decide the fate of their nation and its leadership, without pressure or interference from any outside party."
Washington, which slapped sanctions on Damascus in June, has repeatedly called on Syria to withdraw the thousands of troops has stationed in Lebanon since it intervened in the civil war in 1976.
France, Germany and Britain have also come out against the move.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also said in Damascus on Saturday that he had given a European Union (EU) message to Syrian leaders stressing the need for the Lebanese consitution to be respected.
In Beirut on Friday, Fischer had called for Lebanon to be "preserved as a sovereign and independent state".
Britain's junior foreign minister Bill Rammell said the same day that London "believes that constitutional change should be undertaken after careful debate and public consultation."
And in Paris, French President Jacques Chirac agreed Friday the presidential election should be held "in line with the current constitution."