With Islamic State on march, Lebanon's Christians must agree on president

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt attends a celebration to solidify the reconciliation between Christians and Druze in Brih May 17, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

BEIRUT (Reuters) - With minorities facing death and persecution at the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Lebanon's Christians must lay aside their rivalries and agree on who should fill the vacant presidency, a leading Druze politician has warned.

Walid Jumblatt, the most influential figure in Lebanon's Druze community, says he is as alarmed as anyone by the rise of the radical Islamist group guided by a puritanical vision of Islam that is a major threat to religious minorities including his own. Christians and Yazidis have fled its advance in Iraq.