Lebanese president: Not deterred by rocket attacks

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman condemned Friday the rocket attack on the Mount Lebanon town of Baabda where the presidential palace is located, saying they would not change his nationalist principles. Two rockets on Thursday night fell in Baabda region -- one of them exploding close to the presidential palace, the other near the Lebanese Armed Forces Command and Staff College in al- Rayhaniyeh. Security sources said the rockets were launched from the area of Al-Mwanse in Dhour Aramoun. In a statement issued by the presidential media office, Suleiman said "the recurrence of rocket messages, no matter who sends them or towards which direction they are sent and no matter how dangerous they are, cannot change the nationalist principles and convictions that are being expressed with the honest and free word, emerging from the belief in the national interest to shield the country from what is happening around us and the region." "In order to guarantee Lebanon's stability and the unity among the Lebanese, we should return to the Baabda Declaration and maintain national consolidation amid these precarious circumstances," he said. The Baabda declaration calls for disassociating Lebanon from regional crises, especially the ongoing one in Syria. Suleiman delivered Thursday a speech on the occasion of the Army Day, saying the presence of non-state weapons would cripple the army's mission. He also called for reconsidering the national defense strategy, "especially after the weapons of the resistance (hinting Hezbollah) crossed the Lebanese border."