Syrian Ally Returns
As Lebanese
Prime Minister
By
Robert Fisk
11 March 2005
The Independent
Hes
back. Omar Karami, the Ramsay MacDonald of Lebanese politics, has returned
to power as Prime Minister - "power" being a word of limited
definition here at the moment - only 10 days after he resigned from
office during mass demonstrations against Syrias presence in Lebanon.
The most pro-Syrian
prime minister of Lebanon - his cabinet was dubbed "made in Syria"
by the US administration - was reappointed by one of the countrys
most pro-Syrian presidents, Emile Lahoud, after 71 of 78 MPs in the
128-member Lebanese parliament put forward his name, more than half
of the votes required in the assembly.
MacDonald was perhaps
Britains most impotent 20th century prime minister - Churchill
cruelly described him as "the boneless wonder" - but Mr Karami
arrived at parliament yesterday with a threat: unless he could form
a cabinet which included the opposition - which had already rejected
his premiership - there might be "unforeseen, dangerous results"
to the Lebanese economy.
It was the murder
of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister and symbol of Lebanons
post-civil war regeneration, on 14 February, that endangered the economy,
but there was no doubt that Mr Karami understood the dangers. Lebanon
is $33bn (£17bn) in debt and with Mr Hariri assassinated, who
can safeguard future investment in Lebanon? Certainly not Mr Karami.
The Syrian army
yesterday continued its evacuation of bases around Batroun, Tripoli
and the mountains above Beirut - their military intelligence offices
in the capital still remained open for business - as Lebanese troops
took over their positions. But the return of a Karami government, supposing
he can form one, put Syrias fingerprints back on the Lebanese
cabinet. Needless to say, Mr Karami said that he would form a "government
of national unity and salvation" - something which Lebanese prime
ministers have been doing on and off for the past 30 years.
Samir Franjieh,
one of the opposition MPs who helped to break the last Karami government,
claimed that the reappointment was intended to destroy any hope of a
national dialogue. "It is a step that greatly challenges the opposition
and the peoples feelings," he said. Mr Karami claimed that
he had the support of a parliamentary majority and of the people, adding
that the Hizbollah-organised pro-Syrian demonstration on Tuesday, which
drew half a million, was "a massive demonstration that asserted
our legitimacy in the Lebanese street". That the new prime minister
believes he is entitled to his job because of a Hizbollah rally says
almost as much about Lebanese politics as his own reappointment.
What is becoming
clearer, however, is that after Syrias military withdrawal, the
Hizbollah guerrillas who led the resistance to Israeli occupation are
going to be the vanguard of Damascus in Lebanon, the institution whose
organising power and discipline will be used to prevent the Syrian retreat
turning into the first stage of a Lebanese-Israeli peace treaty until
there is an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian and Syrian
lands.
Although it has
only seven seats in the Lebanese parliament, Hizbollah refuses to contemplate
the disarming of its members - as UN Security Council Resolution 1559
demands, along with the Israeli government - and even Washington appears
to have concluded, after Tuesdays massive rally in Beirut, that
the organisation it has vilified for the past three years as another
centre of "world terror" will have to be lived with. Walid
Jumblatt, the Druze leader and now in effect head of the Lebanese opposition,
repeatedly points out that ShiaHizbollah is a Lebanese movement that
has a political role to play in its country. Israel and America may
dream of a disarmed Hizbollah but the idea that the Lebanese army, whose
soldiers include a large number of Shias, will collect its weapons,
is a myth.
What is becoming
clear is that Syrias tactic of drawing out its military withdrawal
is intended to break the unity of its Lebanese opponents. Yesterday,
there were no major demonstrations, in Martyrs Square in Beirut,
no "cedar" revolution and little real unified response from
the opposition to Mr Karamis reappointment. The best the opposition
could do was announce a Saturday rally in Beirut in which 10,800 people
would form a massive red, white and green Lebanese flag - shirts distributed
free of charge - in the centre of the capital. Pro-Syrian groups have
organised another rally in Tripoli, Mr Karamis home city. "Sister
Syria", it seems, still intends to clutch Lebanon in its family
embrace.