Unsolved key issues ignites fear among Lebanese

May 23, 2008, 20:02 GMT

Beirut - For most Lebanese, when parliament meets to elect army commander Michel Suleiman as president on Sunday will mark a turning point for a brighter future, but fear prevails for some because several key issues are remain unresolved.

'Can someone explain to me! We were on the brink of a civil war, then suddenly we shifted and we found a long term solution for the 18-month-long crisis which has literary paralysed the country and us Lebanese as well?' said Saeed Tabara.

Tabara lost a brother in the recent fighting between followers of the opposition and those loyal to the majority.

Over the past 14 days Lebanon has moved from one extreme to the other as its leaders struggle to resolve the political stalemate.

With leaders having announced a deal on Wednesday following six days of marathon talks in Doha, Qatar, the violent clashes that erupted on May 7 and left 82 dead now seem a distant memory for some.

'We all made concession to avoid a new civil war and to save Lebanon,' said Walid Jumblatt, the Druze community leader and head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party, which is a member of the Western-backed governing coalition.

If all goes to plan, the Lebanese parliament will finally elect a new president on Sunday and the country will have a new national unity government by next week.

Sunday's parliament session comes after 19 failed bids in six months to convene to elect a replacement for pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud whose term ended in November 2006.

'The leaders of this country are funny, they started fighting each other for the past months over a national unity government with a veto power for the opposition, but Doha agreement gave a veto power to the opposition,' Tabbara said.

The fact that under the Doha agreement, the Hezbollah-led opposition will sit at the cabinet table, with the power of veto over key decisions, and that parliamentary elections will take place in 2009 under new electoral laws, has been greeted with cautious optimism in the capital Beirut.

'Who knows they (leaders) may find a new issue to fight over in the few days, probably the portfolios in the new cabinet,' said Hala Shahine, a teacher.

Under the terms of the Doha agreement, 16 cabinet seats will be reserved for the governing majority, 11 for the opposition and three to be nominated by the new president.

Some Beirut residents suggest this is a kind of 'truce' that will last only until Lebanon holds the 2009 parliamentary elections.

'Let's wait and see what the elections in 2009 bring ... We will have another problem then,' said Saleh Baraket.

Many Lebanese feel Suleiman will have tough issues to deal when he heads the dialogue table among the Lebanese rivals.

The main issue will be Hezbollah weapons and future relations with Syria and the international tribunal for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and 10 other political assassinations that remain unsolved.

People fear that these important and divisive issues were left unsolved at the Doha talks and might ignite a new 'war of words' among the rivals later on.

Most Lebanese militias disarmed as part of an agreement that ended the 15-year civil war in 1990, but at the time Hezbollah was allowed to keep its weapons to fight Israel.

Some analysts echo the views on the street and suggest that the new accord reached in Doha 'represents more of a respite than a resolution to a crisis that cuts across issues that are fundamental to Lebanon's future: the power of the Shiite community through Hezbollah and the influence of foreign patrons - Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.'