After the cabinet…Elections on schedule

BEIRUT - Ghazi Aridi

April 2005

Translated from Arabic

At last, the Lebanese cabinet was born after an international-regional-Lebanese compromise that started in the Arab Saudi Kingdom which Ambassador Walid al-Moallem visited as a delegate of the Syrian leadership. The kingdom played a special role in calming matters down through its contacts with the different Lebanese leaderships. It is known that the opposition leader Walid Jumblatt had visited the kingdom before the Syrian withdrawal and had conveyed his sincerity (regarding this withdrawal).

The Saudi leadership, for its part, had expressed its wish that Jumblatt be positive in line with the kingdom's keenness to maintain Lebanese stability, national unity and good relations with Syria. As a matter of fact, a short while after the meeting between Jumblatt and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Syrian President Bashar Assad announced the decision of withdrawing (his troops) from Lebanon. Jumblatt reacted positively while he was still at the Kingdom.

There is no doubt that a special relationship ties the family of martyr premier Rafik Hariri to the Saudi ruling family. Therefore, Jumblatt's business with the kingdom came along these lines, and the kingdom showed great understanding of his position.

What remains imperative is the unveiling of the truth regarding the assassination of the martyr premier and his companions, the formation of a cabinet and the holding of parliamentary elections on time.

The Saudi leadership contacted Damascus, Paris, Cairo and other capitals concerned with and following up on Lebanese affairs. Jumblatt sent an emissary to Prince Abdullah to follow up on developments after the Lebanese authority's delay in forming the cabinet and its attempt to reschedule parliamentary elections despite the positive signs that the opposition had shown.

A Prince Abdullah visit to (French) President (Jacques) Chirac was announced and was scheduled to precede his visit to Washington to meet with American President George Bush. International emissary Terje Rod-Larsen visited Damascus and heard Syria's resolve of completing its final and official withdrawal before the end of April. Then there was a surge in international and regional visits to Syria while a series of stances was made demanding that the Lebanese authorities hold elections as scheduled, a fact which mandated the formation of a cabinet as soon as it was possible.

In Paris, a (Lebanese) government was born last week. While Prince Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz was meeting with Jacques Chirac, Walid Jumblatt was holding discussions with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and a number of other French officials as well as with officials of a number of European countries at the European Parliament, the European Union and the European socialist parties. Meanwhile, Saad Hariri was following up on Saudi-French and Lebanese-French contacts and was participating in offering ideas and suggestions that might lead to putting an end to the problem. The two men (Jumblatt and Hairri) were in contact with the opposition leadership in Beirut.

As such, and between Chirac, Abdulllah Bin Abdul-Aziz, Terje Rod-Larsen, Syria and the Lebanese opposition, the idea of naming Najib Mikati prime minister was born. And there was the surprise: The opposition was the faction that put Mikati in power after divisions surfaced inside the loyalists after the previously appointed premier Omar Karami withdrew.

Mikati is known for his close personal and political relations with the Syrian leadership. And if some considered that this means that the premiership or the prime minister were still close to Syria or its protégé, the majority believes that it is not required—that a prime minister – be far from Syria or opposed to her. On the contrary, Mikati's and other peoples' relations should be exploited for the restructuring of sound Lebanese-Syrian relations after Lebanon witnessed painful events due to the deterioration in relations consequential of the abuse of the network of Lebanese-Syrian interests and taking it far from the basis on which it was founded and aimed at.

At the end, Majib Mikati formed the cabinet. This is positive. What is needed today is his execution of the commitments he has made and these include:

1.      The government firing the heads of security apparatuses before the International Investigation Commission forces it to do so. In this lies a confession of wrong doing, negligence and stubbornness of the authority in dealing with this issue previously and its direct responsibility about what happened. It would also be a confession of the importance of the investigation commission and the difficulty of obstructing its work. Along these lines, we should reiterate our call for the appointment of apparatus heads who should not be from the same school, who should not employ similar tactics and who should win confidence.

2.      Facilitating the mission of the investigation commission upon its formation and cooperating with it in order to unveil the truth (of the killing of Hariri).

3.      Holding parliamentary elections as constitutionally scheduled, that is before May 29, so that the country will not go into the oblivion. This mandates the agreement on an electoral law. This is the bottom line. This is the central and basic issue because the electoral law is a matter of life and death for all (Lebanese) political powers. This item puts Lebanon again – even after the international and regional compromise that produced the cabinet – in a critical position, for any delay of elections, like some are trying to do because of the fear of the authorities, the loyalists and some of "Syria's allies" of its results due to the wide popular support that opposition has, will expose Syria, Lebanon and the resistance to grave danger. It will be stupidity that no one can bear its consequences.

4.      UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan has granted Syrian President Bashar Assad his request to delay the issuance of his (Anan's) report on the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1559 for a week until the completion of the withdrawal of the Syrian armed forces. And this is a positive step that has been seconded by several international powers. Furthermore, the Iranian-French, Saudi-French and Iranian-Lebanese contacts with both the Lebanese authority and Jumblatt, in addition to Jumblatt's domestic contacts, those with the Saudi and French leaderships and his common stances with the family of martyr premier Rafik Hariri insisting on protecting the resistance were positive developments. This positivity will backfire in the faces of Syria itself and those who are hiding behind her should elections be re-scheduled.

The opposition has participated in the birth of the compromise and has facilitated the formation of the cabinet even though the lineup was not fair. We have to point out that some of the opposition has made a mistake by refusing to participate in the cabinet either directly or indirectly. The authority should, with the birth of a new government, take the initiative of holding elections, the single most important issue today.

Ghazi Aridi is a Lebanese MP and former minister. He is a close advisor to opposition leader Walid Jumblatt.