Jumblat in Paris as Chirac reportedly Invites Sfeir to Elysee, Too

Druze leader Walid Jumblat has flown to Paris for a precedent-setting meeting with President Chirac Friday that underlines France's persistent disenchantment with Syria's dictated 3-year extension of Gen. Emile Lahoud's term as president of Lebanon. Jumblat, who heads the Progressive Socialist Party, is the first Lebanese opposition politician to be invited to the Elysee. Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir was invited to the French presidential palace last year in his capacity as the head of the Maronite Church. Nevertheless, the Beirut media said Thursday Sfeir would be invited for a new meeting with Chirac before Christmas to get his views as well as Jumblat's on the defiance by the Lahoud regime of U.N. resolution 1559 that was co-sponsored by France and the U.S. to break Syria's hegemony over Lebanon. There was no immediate comment from Bkirki on the reported invitation. Cardinal Sfeir has been an outspoken supporter of resolution 1559, which calls for a total Syrian military withdrawal from Lebanon. Sfeir advocates a Lebanon-Syria alliance on a basis of equality.