Lebanon’s political crisis exposes facade of unity
By Alistair Lyon
BEIRUT: Lebanon's political crisis has shredded a facade of national unity kept up during Hezbollah's war with Israel and could spark street confrontations in Beirut. Lebanon is struggling to regain its feet after the devastating July-August conflict and can ill afford further instability, especially as it seeks to persuade donors due to meet in Paris in January to help fund reconstruction.
But it now faces prospects of demonstrations led by the powerful Hezbollah movement to back its demands for a greater say in government for its allies. Its opponents have threatened to stage counter-demonstrations.
“Going down to the streets is one of the important steps that Hezbollah and its allies will take,” the group's deputy chief Sheikh Naim Kassem told Reuters on Sunday.
Local newspaper headlines posed bleak questions.
“Where is Lebanon heading -- the unknown or a dangerous tunnel?” the pro-Syrian al-Diyar wondered.
Five Shia ministers loyal to Hezbollah and its ally Amal quit Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's cabinet on Saturday, sapping the credibility of the majority anti-Syrian government.Their resignations followed the collapse of all-party talks on demands by Hezbollah, Amal and their Christian ally Michel Aoun for enough cabinet seats to give them an effective veto.
The stage is set for a struggle over Lebanon's destiny, pitting the camp led by Hezbollah, an ally of Syria and Iran, against Sunnis, Druze and Christians who are closer to the West.
The anti-Syrian coalition suspects its opponents of engineering the crisis to block the tribunal, in which Syrian security officials and their Lebanese counterparts could face charges. Damascus denies any involvement in Hariri's killing.
Hezbollah and its allies insist their pressure for a broader-based cabinet is not linked to the special court, whose creation they have approved, though only in principle.
Constitutionally, Siniora's government can function without the five Shia ministers since it commands a majority led by Hariri's son Saad in the 128-seat parliament. But in a system based on sectarian consensus, the absence of representatives from Lebanon's Shias, the single biggest community, could fatally weaken it.
Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud declared on Sunday that Siniora's government had lost its legitimacy. The anti-Syrian camp has challenged the legitimacy of Lahoud's own position since his term was extended in 2004 at the behest of Damascus.
Wily Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is also the leader of Amal, stood by Siniora during the war with Israel, acting as a key link with Hezbollah and seeking consensus on such divisive issues as the UN resolution that ended hostilities on Aug. 14.But Berri has abandoned the Sunni prime minister after the failure of the all-party talks the Shia leader had convened, leaving no obvious mediator between the two hostile camps.The crisis has simmered since the war that erupted after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. Both camps in Lebanon felt betrayed by the conflict.
Hezbollah was enraged at what it saw as the sympathy of the anti-Syrian “March 14” coalition for a US-backed Israeli attempt to destroy its guerrillas and their rocket arsenal.
Hezbollah's foes accused it of acting as a proxy for Iran or Syria in sparking the war and embroiling Lebanon in a wider conflict between the United States and its regional foes.
Siniora and his allies have tried to fend off Hezbollah charges that they are “stooges” of Washington, for example by condemning the US veto on Saturday of a UN Security Council resolution urging Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza.
But the White House's rhetoric makes it harder for the anti-Syrian camp to dispel Hezbollah fears that its ultimate aim is to neuter the Shia guerrillas as a fighting force with the help of a tougher UN peacekeeping force now patrolling their former southern strongholds alongside Lebanese army troops.
“Hezbollah and Iran remain a dangerous, global nexus of terrorism,” the White House said on Saturday, following US accusations earlier this month that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah were trying to bring down Siniora's government.—Reuters
