Lebanese leaders agree on ties with Syria

Leaders of Lebanon’s rival factions agreed today to demand that Syria establish diplomatic relations, but continued to spar over the fate of the country’s president and the disarmament of the militant Hezbollah group.

The 14 faction leaders – Muslim and Christian, pro- and anti-Syrian – did agree on disarming Palestinian guerrillas outside Lebanon’s refugee camps, and on the Lebanese identity of Chebaa Farms, a sliver of disputed territory on the southern border.