Miqdad said his country's position towards the next Lebanese government would be based on two factors: First how the new government will deal with Syria , and second is how will the new Lebanese government handle the issue of Hezbollah's arms.

Miqdad went further in imposing Syrian conditions on Lebanon and said : "we see a necessity for Lebanon to have such arms in face of the Israeli occupation."

The Syrian official who was speaking Thursday in Damascus at a political symposium that included university professors said: "the disclosure of the Israeli espionage networks, in addition to the recent publishing by the German magazine Der Spiegel clearly points that those that committed the assassination of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafik Hariri wanted to damage inter-Arab and Lebanese-Syrian relations." the assasssination

Spiegel revealed that Hezbollah is behind the assassination of Hariri and the truck used in the massive bomb on February 2005 was owned by a Hezbollah member

The Lebanese have decided to handle the issue of Hezbollah arms through dialogue . Syria's blatant interference in Lebanese internal affairs according to observers could torpedo the dialogue talks .

Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir sounded an alarm today . In an interview with al-Massira magazine, Sfeir said :"Syria is out, but did its ambitions in Lebanon disappear? He added: “Hezbollah and March 8 wanted to win the elections for the Syrian and Iranian influence to return to Lebanon, and for March 14 to fail and become marginalized.”