Bitter new fighting erupted in Lebanon late last week after Lebanese parliamentarians braved mortar fire from leftist forces to elect a new President to replace Suleiman Franjieh, the embattled Christian leader who two weeks ago conditionally agreed to step down. Fran-jieh's replacement had been a major leftist condition for negotiations to end the 13-month-old civil war between Christians and Moslems, which has taken 16,000 lives. But fearing that Elias Sarkis, the Syrian-backed candidate, would win the election, Moslem forces launched a last-ditch effort to prevent the voting.
Shortly before the Parliament was...