Beirut - Rival Lebanese leaders on Friday mourned pro-Syrian Druze official Sheikh Saleh al-Aridi, killed two days ago by a car bomb, by vowing to unite and secure the country's stability and peace. "We will not allow the assassination of Sheikh Saleh al-Aridi to sow the seeds of discord among the Lebanese," said pro-Syrian Talal Arslan, the head of the Druze Democratic Liberal Party, to which Aridi belonged.
Arslan said that Aridi had fallen in defence of unity in a speech during his funeral, in which he also paid tribute to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and his rival Walid Jumblatt.
Anti-Syrian Druze rival Jumblatt, who was attending the funeral next to Arslan, said, "The message has been received; the loss is huge and can only be compensated by commitment to unity."
Followers of Jumblatt and Arslan marched hand-in-hand in a funeral procession which was headed by dozens of Druze sheikhs as well as representative from the pro and anti-Syrian camps in Lebanon.
Aridi was killed late Wednesday when a bombplaced under his car exploded in the Druze town of Baysour, 30 kilometers south-east of Beirut.
According to Lebanese security sources, the device which was used in Aridi's killing was similar to ones used to kill anti-Syrian politicians and journalists.
Baysour was the theatre of fierce clashes in May between the town's Druze and Hezbollah fighters, who advanced from the nearby village of Kaifoun, the base of a giant relay station for Hezbollah's al-Manar television.
Aridi's death has raised fears of more tension in Lebanon less than a week before the start of talks aimed at reconciling deep divisions between the country's rival factions.
Aridi was a close adviser to Arslan, who is also a minister in the new unity government, and had recently helped bridge differences among the Druze, a secretive Muslim sect that makes up about 10 per cent of Lebanon's population.
Observers believe that the attack has significant implications for Lebanon's political stability, coming only one day after President Michel Suleiman announced the resumption on Tuesday of a "national dialogue" aimed at forming a national defence strategy and defining the roles of the army and militias.
The talks are part of the peace deal reached in Qatar in May after an 18-month political crisis that almost plunged Lebanon into a new civil war.
