Hoss Named Premier Over Aoun Protests

Lebanon’s new president designated veteran Muslim politician Salim Hoss as prime minister today and Gen. Michel Aoun, the Christian army commander, rejected the choice.

Hoss and Aoun have led rival Muslim and Christian governments since the six-year term of President Amin Gemayel ended in September, 1988, with Parliament unable to agree on a successor.

Aoun issued a statement saying the Hoss nomination was “as unconstitutional as the election” Nov. 5 of President Rene Mouawad.

The session at which Parliament elected Mouawad and endorsed a peace plan was held in Syrian-controlled north Lebanon because Aoun threatened to shell the Parliament building in Beirut.

Mouawad, a Christian, instructed Hoss to form a national reconciliation government with the mission of ending the 14-year-old sectarian civil war, in which more than 150,000 people have been killed.

Police reported exchanges of artillery and small-arms fire across Beirut’s sectarian dividing line between Aoun’s Christian army units and Muslim militias backed by Syria. Each side accused the other of starting the battle and no casualty reports were available.

A six-month artillery war between Aoun’s men and a Muslim alliance led by the Syrians killed at least 930 people and wounded 2,744 before a truce arranged by the Arab League ended it in September.

Syria has 40,000 soldiers in Lebanon under an Arab League peacekeeping mandate issued in 1976, the year after the war began. Aoun calls the Syrians an occupation force and has declared a “war of liberation” to drive them out.