Arab diplomacy led to the Taif agreement and, on 5 November 1989, the Lebanese Parliament elected a new president, Rene Muawad. Sfeir supported the Taif proposals which Aoun rejected. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in support of Aoun, surrounding him in the Presidential palace in Baabda. About 1,500 of his supporters invaded Bkerké. Sfeir was manhandled and filmed being forced to kiss a photo of Aoun. The following day he moved to the safety of Syrian controlled North Lebanon. Some sources believe that Sfeir's backing of the Taif accord was the result of pressure from the Vatican who's primary concern was to end the civil war. He is quoted as saying that it would be "a fatal error to believe that we can live alone on an island in which we run our affairs as we like." A few days later, he declared that Aoun's nonacceptance of the Taif Agreement was illegal and unconstitutional. On 5 November Sfeir warned in a sermon that Aoun's stand "would lead to partitioning of the country." Opposition within the Church The patriarch's authority was challenged even within the Church itself, as several monastic orders issued proclamations supporting Aoun and denouncing the Taif Agreement. To bolster the patriarch's authority, the Vatican became directly involved in reorganizing the Maronite Church. Speaking before a gathering of Lebanese bishops in November 1989, the papal nuncio in Lebanon, Pablo Puente, condemned "the interference of clerical persons and institutions in politics without being officially mandated by the church hierarchy. ...An end must be put to political visits and declarations that have no clear Church mandate." The Vatican later sought to temper nationalist views in the clergy by appointing "visiting bishops" to supervise three especially militant monastic orders. In 1990 Sfeir called for the rival government in West Beirut to take over Aoun's "Christian enclave" in the east. "The legitimate government should spread its authority over the whole nation," he said in one interview. "It should not wait for an invitation from anyone to do so." Finally on 13 October 1990, the Syrian Army crushed Aoun's insurgency and the long civil war finally came to an end. Aoun's main objection to the Taif Agreement was that it had no firm timetable for Syrian withdrawal and that it abolished most of the Maronite president's powers, giving them to the Sunni Prime Minister. The Syrians went on to occupy