Ammon News - BEIRUT (The Daily Star) - There are no signs of civil war in Lebanon despite ongoing violence in neighboring Syria, President Michel Sleiman said in remarks published July 18.

"The question of a conflict and civil war in Lebanon is unlikely due to several factors,” Sleiman told the local Beirut daily Ad-Diyar.

Among the factors he cited were the awareness by the Lebanese that war would only bring destruction, the price of destruction and the lessons learned from the 1975-90 Lebanese Civil War.

“At the end, everyone sat at the [National] Dialogue table, but it was too late,” Sleiman recalled.

“Today, we are reminding everyone that of the disastrous outcome [of war],” he warned, stressing the need to hold Dialogue sessions as soon as possible to ward off sectarian strife “during these fateful moments.”

Sleiman, however, said a new government must be formed before the all-party talks.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam has been struggling since April to form a new Cabinet which appears to be increasingly difficult given conditions and counter-conditions set by the rival political sides.

On the Syrian crisis, Sleiman reiterated the need for Lebanon to stay away from the Syria unrest.

“The Syrian crisis went beyond Syrian boundaries,” he said. “It has been regionalized and internationalized.”

Addressing the various political parties in Lebanon, Sleiman warned that “no Lebanese can change the balance of power established by the major powers.”