The political crisis in Lebanon took a new turn as pro-Hezbollah President Michel Suleiman announced that Saad Hariri will function as a 'caretaker' prime minister until a new one can be appointed to take his place, with negotiations starting next week.
This means that Hariri is definitely out as soon as the various factions agree on a replacement...which means someone acceptable to Hezbollah who will disavow the results of UN tribunal on the assassination of Saad Hariri's father, former PM Rafik Hariri in 2005.
The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon is reportedly set to indict high-ranking Hezbollah operatives for the murder, as well as high ranking members of the Syrian government close to Syrian dictator Basher Assad.
Hezbollah had warned any such accusation would have 'grave repercussions' and had been pressuring the Western-backed Hariri to disavow the tribunal in advance.When he wouldn't Hezbollah and their allies pulled their ministers out of the government, causing its collapse.
My sources tell me that certain political figures like Druse leader Walid Jumblatt will name Saad Hariri as their choice to continue as prime minister. If Hezbollah agrees, it's a sure sign thatHariri has caved in to their demands.
1 comment:
With all of the problems going on in Lebanon, why was Mr. Hariri in the United States chatting with Mr. Obama and his staff? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to be at home doing things to actually protect his position?
Why is the United States involved in this at all? The United States has MASSIVE problems right now. Just for starters: the economy is in the toilet, the military is worn down to the breaking point where even basic national defense will be problematic, the manufacring base is hollowed out to the point we can't actually manufacture much of what we need, the national debt is massive, the American intellegence community is incompetent, and all this is going on while we are being invaded by vast hordes from south of our borders.
Any type of resolution to the problems in Lebanon does NOTHING to solve to any of our problems and may make them worse. By our involvement in this money and resources are being diverted away from things that might actually solve some of these problems. Also, there is a risk of us getting pulled into another military conflict. We DO NOT have the manpower, the equipment, or the financial resources to be involved in yet another military conflict. So again, why are we involved in a conflict on the other side of the world where there is only costs involved without any realistic benefits for us?
I think Mr. Hariri may have been in the United States because his faction and the Hezollah faction are both enemies of the United States even though their methods might be different. They are working together to harm America and its interests. While they may not like each other, they hate America more than they hate each other. There will be plenty of time to resume their conflict with each other once common enemies are vanquished. At least this is the thinking on their part.
What is largely not being discussed in the media is Hezbollah is backed up by Iran. Iran is backed up by Russia and China. Russia and China are the two most powerful nation states on earth. As long as this backing is in place there is pretty much nothing we can do about Iran or Hezbollah.
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