A solution in sight?
The mood is joyful in Beirut these days. The leaders of two of the world’s most despotic regimes have apparently agreed to solve our problems, completely disregarding some of our “leaders” who continue to claim that the problem is internal in nature. Well, why else would Ahmadinejad bother to visit his Saudi counterpart if not for including a certain political faction in the government – namely the FPM –? Most notable though was the absence of one man: Bashar Al-Assad. Things are not what they used to be on the shores of the Barada.
Not much is being revealed about the latest initiative. But it has been reported that the deal that is being cooked includes the formation of a national unity government (that will be presented as a 19-10-1 government for March 14 supporters and as a 19-11 government for opposition supporters in an effort to please everybody) and an agreement on the international tribunal after introducing a number of amendments in order to please Syria and its Lebanese allies. No winners. No losers. All happy.
The Reform & Change bloc would be represented by 4 ministers: 2 ministers from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, a third from the Tashnag and a fourth from Elias Skaff’s Popular Bloc. Giving Michel Aoun 2 ministers will certainly not be well received by his rival Samir Geagea who has been working hard ever since he was freed from prison to prove his popular support and to regain parts of the “Christian street”. After the impressive and surprising LF turnout at the 2nd anniversary of Hariri’s assassination, it is hard to believe that they are going to settle for a mere minister of tourism. The LF is most likely going to take Yaacoub Sarraf’s position. One would hope that March 14 has learned from its mistake and would insist on nominating at least one Shiite minister, not only to avoid accusation of unconstitutionality in case of a similar crisis in the future but also to reach out to those Shiites who do not identify with Hezbollah or Amal. But let’s not get too ambitious.
Not much is being revealed about the latest initiative. But it has been reported that the deal that is being cooked includes the formation of a national unity government (that will be presented as a 19-10-1 government for March 14 supporters and as a 19-11 government for opposition supporters in an effort to please everybody) and an agreement on the international tribunal after introducing a number of amendments in order to please Syria and its Lebanese allies. No winners. No losers. All happy.
The Reform & Change bloc would be represented by 4 ministers: 2 ministers from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, a third from the Tashnag and a fourth from Elias Skaff’s Popular Bloc. Giving Michel Aoun 2 ministers will certainly not be well received by his rival Samir Geagea who has been working hard ever since he was freed from prison to prove his popular support and to regain parts of the “Christian street”. After the impressive and surprising LF turnout at the 2nd anniversary of Hariri’s assassination, it is hard to believe that they are going to settle for a mere minister of tourism. The LF is most likely going to take Yaacoub Sarraf’s position. One would hope that March 14 has learned from its mistake and would insist on nominating at least one Shiite minister, not only to avoid accusation of unconstitutionality in case of a similar crisis in the future but also to reach out to those Shiites who do not identify with Hezbollah or Amal. But let’s not get too ambitious.
posted by M. at 1:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home