BEIRUT - Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea insists that the issue of Lebanese detainees in Syria is a State matter and is “not only the concern of one community, one region or one political group”. He calls on President Michel Suleiman to settle this issue before dealing with other “details”.

Speaking after a meeting with a delegation from the Human Rights Foundation and the Committee of families of detainees in Syria, Geagea said that any deal between Lebanon and Syria should take into consideration the matter of the detainees. “Otherwise, he added, the Lebanese State will lose the trusts of its people.”

Geagea is not worried about the outcome of the Spring 2009 elections. However, he fears that the opposition resorts to “their favorite pass-time, assassinations” in the majority wins