With less than a week to go before Lebanon’s parliament convenes again to elect a president, all indicators are that the session is doomed to fail or will be cancelled for lack of consensus among the country’s feuding political factions.

Russia, Iran and other Caspian Sea countries strongly warned outside nations on Tuesday against using their territories for launching military action, but they failed to reach an agreement on ways to divide the sea’s vast energy resources.

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived here Tuesday for a four-day visit to discuss regional issues and bilateral ties, Anatolia news agency reported.