Changing Lebanon
In response to internal calls for a reshuffle and because of US threats against Syria, Lebanon is about to get a new government. Mohalhel Fakih reports from Beirut
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri, who resigned late on Tuesday, is widely expected to head a new government and appoint a few moderate Christian opposition figures to bolster national unity. Al-Hariri's previous government had been coming under strong criticism from House Speaker Nabih Berri who accused it of failing to tackle Lebanon's debt crisis.
President Emile Lahoud accepted Al-Hariri's resignation at a meeting on Tuesday and asked him to continue as caretaker until a new government is formed.
Lebanon's three top officials, Lahoud, Berri and Al-Hariri, agreed on the move following a reported meeting between the House speaker and President Bashar Al-Assad of Syria, whose country wields significant political influence over Lebanon.
The Lebanese constitution stipulates a power-sharing arrangement whereby the prime ministerial post is always held by a Sunni Muslim and the presidency by a Maronite Christian while a Shi'ite Muslim holds the position of parliament speaker.
Al-Hariri's resignation was announced by the presidential palace. President Lahoud's spokesman Rafik Shlala did not give a reason for the move which took the Lebanese people by surprise. Asked if Al-Hariri would head a new government, Shlala said: "It depends on the reaction of the deputies."
The Al-Hariri-owned Al-Mustaqbql newspaper said it had contacted the leaders of major parliamentary blocs who, it added, all confirmed they would nominate Al-Hariri.
Al-Hariri has been the driving force behind Lebanon's reconstruction following the 1975-1990 civil war. He has headed most governments since then. His last government was in office since November 2000 after the 58-year-old billionaire businessman and his allies swept the parliamentary elections.
A change in government has been a nagging demand due to political tensions and discord over economic policy but reports here indicated Lebanese leaders only agreed to carry out a reshuffle after Damascus gave a green light to such a move. Press reports claimed that top officials already agreed, under Syrian auspices, on the structure of the next cabinet.
Speaker Berri's adviser, Arafat Hijazy, was quoted as saying that mounting US threats against Syria, plus the Iraq war, were the chief reasons behind the reshuffle. "Since the military campaign in Iraq ended it was necessary to reshape the government. And these threats against Syria gave an additional push," Hijazy said.
He stressed that the country's leadership wants to "strengthen the domestic front" and "create resistance to any penetration that might dismantle the Lebanese-Syrian front". Leading ministers gave their own reasons for the shake-up, saying the 30-member outgoing government failed to address pressing economic, administrative and political needs.
Since Washington stepped up allegations against Syria, accusing it of sheltering members of Iraq's ousted regime, as well as developing chemical weapons, Lebanese officials have been warning of the repercussions in their country. They urged national unity and warned against attempts by some Christian Maronite figures, staunchly opposed to the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon, from riding on a wave of anti- Syrian rhetoric in the US to pressure Damascus.
In a recent unprecedented move, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, heading a meeting of bishops, praised President Al-Assad's opposition to the war against Iraq.
Sfeir's statement signaled a thaw in chilly ties with Syria. He had been a vocal opponent of the presence of an estimated 20,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon, who were described as an "occupation" force by US Secretary of State Colin Powell this month.
Sfeir is influential among Maronites in Lebanon and has supported a group of opposition figures known as Qornet Shehwan. They constantly demand "rectifying" Syrian- Lebanese ties, although most of them voiced backing for Al- Assad's stand on the Iraq war.
Analysts in Beirut believe the new government will include at least one Qornet Shehwan member to garner broad national support. And prominent observer Emile Khoury wrote that efforts were under way to form a government with wider Christian representation to shore up national unity and solidarity with Syria.
"The new government must reassure all Lebanese factions and sects and should satisfy Syria and joint Syrian-Lebanese interests," Khoury wrote in An-Nahar daily. Lebanese officials and politicians have unanimously denounced the US threats against Syria and voiced their solidarity with Damascus, accusing Washington of "serving Israeli interests".
A pro-government Christian source was quoted by the As- Safir newspaper as saying the next government will have to tackle a "difficult (regional) phase", adding that there was concern over "moves by certain opposition symbols carried out in tandem with escalating US threats against Syria and the developments in Iraq". The source cited the talks that ex- President Amin Gemayel has been holding with officials in Europe and the US and the strong support that exiled former Lebanese Army Commander General Michel Aoun is giving to the Syria Accountability Act in the US Congress. It urges the White House to impose sanctions on Damascus for, among a host of other reasons, the deployment of Syrian troops in Lebanon.
A globetrotting Al-Hariri had been touring political heavyweight capitals, including Moscow, Paris, and Athens, to drum up support for Syria and Lebanon. Analysts here made it clear that Al-Hariri's good offices among Gulf Arab and Western governments are now vital, especially as the US and Israel pile more pressure on Syria and Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah which continues to enjoy strong official and popular backing.
Despite the numerous differences between President Lahoud and Al-Hariri that have strained the outgoing government's reform agenda, the now caretaker prime minister, who heads a sizeable parliamentary bloc, remains indispensable for economic reasons. Al-Hariri is spearheading a fiscal reform programme that has received international backing to trim Lebanon's $30 billion public debt.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 17 - 23 April 2003 (Issue No. 634)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/634/re3.htm