TEHRAN Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi here on Monday expressed his satisfaction with the holding of parliamentary elections in Lebanon, particularly in the liberated southern part after 22 years of occupation by the Zionist regime.
Lebanese voters went to the polls on Sunday for a second, final stage of parliamentary elections.
Many voters living in the border strip South of Lebanon, which had been occupied by Israel for 22 years until May, voted for the first time since 1972, the date elections were last held before the civil war which ended in 1990.
Addressing domestic reporters, Assefi said that the Islamic Republic of Iran's policy on Lebanon stresses the unity and consolidation of all its tribes in order to continue the trend of victory.
"We consider the holding of the parliamentary elections as another victory for the Lebanese nation," he added.
Terming the existing relations between the Iranian and Lebanese governments and nations as profound and amicable, he reiterated that Tehran is keen at further expanding relations with Beirut under a new chapter in the country's history.
Sunday's election round covered South Lebanon and the Bekaa where major coalitions proved impenetrable, unofficial results showed.
Observers said the coalition list of parliamentary speaker and head of the Amal Party, Nabih Berri and Hizbollah took all 23 seats allotted to South Lebanon.
Their similar coalition with Syrian backed leftist groupings and right-wing Christians also swept the 10 seats assigned to the Baalbeck-Hermel district of the Bekaa Valley, observers said.
Meanwhile in Beirut, official results were expected to be announced Monday evening but unofficial estimates show Hoss lost his parliamentary seat.
Preliminary results gave former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri 18 of Beirut's 19 parliamentary seats that assures him a two-thirds majority in the new legislature which would constitutionally enable him to head the new government.
Hoss early Monday admitted defeat but the incumbent premier refused to confirm whether he would resign.
"That is premature," he told a press conference.
"I will accept the results of the elections and act accordingly.
I will persist in my political career from outside Parliament." The constitutional deadline for Hoss to leave office is on October 17 when the new Parliament is installed.
Hariri was pronounced by the local media this morning as the leader of the biggest single bloc in the new Parliament. The former premier also made clear in recent remarks that he would have no problem working with Lahoud. "I do not have a problem coexisting with Lahoud in power," Hariri said Sunday.
According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), observers attributed Hariri's stunning election victory to the government's chaotic policies that have caused the worst economic and financial crisis in the nation's victory.
In all, 65 deputies were elected on Sunday. Sixty-three deputies were elected in the first round held in northern and Mount Lebanon on August 27.