Random Thoughts from Lebanon

The events of the last 10 days have resulted in a new situation in the country. Hizbullah has used its weapons against Lebanese - something it said it would never do - and proved that its military strength could enable it to take over the country if it wished, the Government was forced to back down on two controversial decisions which Hizbullah considered to be a declaration of war against them and the army came close to splitting along sectarian lines.  Walid Jumblat, leader of the Druze community, whose press conference in which he “revealed” what everyone knew already about the Hizbullah communications network and the security staff at Beirut airport, seemed shocked by the results of his outburst, as did all the political leadership, not to mention the entire population of the country.

Enter, again, the Arab League. Its Secretary General, Amr Moussa, has been shuttling to and from Beirut for months in an attempt to negotiate a solution to the political deadlock, but to no avail.  However, a Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Cairo last Sunday decided to appoint a ministerial committee, headed by the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al Thani. In 24 hours he achieved what no one else had been able to do - obtained an agreement on an immediate return to the status quo ante and pursuaded the political leaders to acompany him back to Doha for negotiations on the core issues - the election of a president, the formation of a national unity government and a new electoral law.

One major issue that does not seem to be on the agenda for the Doha talks is the international tribunal to try the alledged assassins of former prime minister, Rafic Hariri. This may well be another stumbling block along the way, but, for now, the outlook is brighter than it was a week ago.

Beirut airport re-opened last night and the port resumed work this morning. The main border crossing into Syria has also reopened and business is getting back to normal. Let us hope that the Doha talks yield real results.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.