Hezbollah confident of election in Lebanon

BINT JBEIL, Lebanon – As tension grew at the burial of a slain anti-Syrian journalist on Saturday, the anti-Syrian opposition called for Lebanon’s president to step down as the country prepares for the second of four stages of parliamentary elections.

The second stage will take place in the south of Lebanon today. Hezbollah expects to win, which will give the militant group greater political influence to confront international pressure to disarm now that its Syrian backers have withdrawn from the country.

But the death of Samir Kassir, the anti-Syrian journalist killed Thursday by a bomb in his car, reignited hostility toward Damascus and prompted calls for President Emile Lahoud, Syria’s greatest supporter here, to step down.

Mourners marched in Beirut at Kassir’s funeral Saturday amid calls for an international probe into his death.

Kassir, a 45-year-old columnist for An-Nahar newspaper, was laid to rest in St. Mitr Cemetery, a few hundred meters from where he died in the Christian suburb of Ashrafieh.

Lebanese opposition members, who blame Syria and its local allies for Kassir’s killing, asked government officials to stay away from the funeral.

Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon in April after three decades, and Lebanon is in the midst of an election that the anti-Syrian opposition hopes will end Damascus’ legislative control.

While the race for seats in most Lebanese areas is largely between pro- and anti-Syrian camps, today’s election is geared toward rejecting international pressure to disarm Hezbollah in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Al Manar, Hezbollah’s television station, said the elections would serve as a referendum on Hezbollah’s options.

Voters in southern Lebanon are united in their support for Hezbollah – crediting it for forcing Israeli troops to withdraw from the region – and in their rejection of international attempts to disarm the group. Hezbollah, backed by both Syria and Iran, led a guerrilla war against Israel’s 18-year occupation of a border zone in south Lebanon that ended in 2000.