BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman sent a memorandum to the United Nations Tuesday listing violations of Lebanese territories by the warring factions in Syria after apparently losing patience with caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to do so. Sleiman handed the memo to U.N. Special Coordinator for LebanonDerek Plumbly after the president summoned the diplomat for a meeting at Baabda Palace, according to a statement from the president’s office.

 

The memo stated “the violations and attacks against Lebanese territories by all the warring factions in Syria,” the statement said.

 

Sleiman demanded that the memo be sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and distributed as one of the Security Council’s official documents.

 

The move appears to be in response to Mansour’s failure to file a complaint over Syria’s violations with the U.N Security Council and the Arab League, despite repeated requests by Sleiman.

 

Mansour said Monday that he had not finished examining the president’s request. “I am still studying the matter from all its aspects,” Mansour told The Daily Star, refusing to elaborate.

 

Political sources said Mansour had yet to decide whether he was going to send a complaint or a memo listing the Syrian violations.

 

Mansour, viewed as being close to Shiite Speaker Nabih Berri, has come under fire from March 14 politicians in the past for ignoring similar requests from Sleiman to file anti-Syria complaints.

 

The parliamentary Future bloc praised what it called Sleiman’s “courageous and national stances,” and accused Mansour of failing to carry out his constitutional and national duties.

 

“With these stances and steps, Sleiman has asserted the president’s position and role in safeguarding sovereignty and independence,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

 

“As the head of the state, he acts as a president entrusted with the Constitution and the interests and wishes of the Lebanese.”

 

The bloc condemned all attacks from Syrian territory on the Bekaa Valley town of Arsal and the city of Hermel and Wadi Khaled and Akkar in the north. It also appealed to the Lebanese people to rally behind Sleiman.

 

In a move seen as heightening tensions between the two countries, Sleiman last week instructed Mansour to lodge complaints with the Arab League and the U.N. over Syria violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and jeopardizing the lives of its citizens.

 

The request was made a day after a Syrian helicopter fired rockets at Arsal, wounding one resident and causing damage to several buildings.

 

The northern Bekaa Valley region of Hermel, a Hezbollah stronghold, has been targeted by rockets from Syrian territory almost on a daily basis, causing both damage and loss of lives.

 

The attacks have been blamed on Syrian rebels retaliating against Hezbollah for its role fighting alongside government forces in Syria.