Anger in cities of Tripoli and Saida and other Lebanese cities as Hezbollah-backed Mikati named PM

 

 

Angry Hariri supporters and protesters remove a poster of former premier Najib Mikati in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011. Thousands

 

 

Soldiers advance towards stone-throwing PM Hariri supporters of outgoing premier Saad al-Hariri, near Tariq al-Jadidah in Beirut

PM Najib Mikati won 68 votes out of the parliament’s 128 seats to achieve the required parliamentary majority he needed to become Lebanon’s new prime minister.   President Michel Suleiman asked the billionaire Sunni tycoon to form a government amid a "day of rage" by fellow Sunnis who blocked roads and burned tyres in anger at his nomination,  Mikati shortly after his appointment rejected attempts to cast him as "Hezbollah’s man" and said he would cooperate with all Lebanese in a bid to form an inclusive government. "Don’t prejudge me or my behaviour, please, especially the international community," the 55-year-old billionaire businessman told AFP in an interview at his Beirut home where well-wishers gathered to congratulate him.

"I say in all honesty that my nomination by Hezbollah does not mean I am bound by any of their political positions, except as concerns the protection of the national resistance," he said, referring to the Shiite militant group’s struggle against neighbouring Israel. "I will cooperate fully with all Lebanese to form a new government that protects their unity and sovereignty," he said. "My hand is extended to all Lebanese."

Mikati told AFP that he would seek to address the thorny issue through dialogue. "Stopping the tribunal today is no longer a Lebanese decision," he said, adding that Lebanon’s cooperation with the tribunal was another question altogether.

The win came two days after the discussions held between lawmakers and Sleiman and almost two weeks after the collapse of Hariri’s cabinet due to resignation of 11 opposition ministers.  The collective resignation was in protest at a potential move by the US-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) to issue an indictment against Hezbollah. 

Protests had turned violent in the northern Sunni bastion of Tripoli, where frenzied demonstrators torched an Al-Jazeera van and ransacked offices of a local Sunni lawmaker who backed Mikati. Mikati’s appointment has angered Sunnis who see it as a bid by the Iran- and Syria-backed Hezbollah to sideline outgoing premier Saad Hariri and impose its will in Lebanon. Lebanese Armed Forces on Friday deployed its troops in all regions of the country, in a bid to maintain security amid the crisis raised by a UN-backed probing of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri’s murder case. In a statement issued Friday, The Lebanese Army Guidance Directorate said that within the context of preserving peace and calm throughout the country, the army will adopt security measures such as setting mobile and fixed military checkpoints and regular patrol in different region.

Please click read more for more detail and more Pictures of these unfortunate events – We just want peace and democracy:

From left, Lebanese Ministers Ali Abdallah, Mohammed Fneish, Abraham Dedeyan, Hussein Hajj Hassan, Jibran Bassil, Mohammed Jawad Khalife, Fady Abboud, Charbel Nahhas, Youssef Saade and Ali Shami hold a press conference to announce their resignation in the northern Beirut suburb of Rabieh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Lebanon’s government collapsed After this press conference a Minister from the coalition of President Suleiman  minister Adnan Sayyed Hussein  presented its resignation too which conclude 11 ministers resigning 1/3 of the government. Hence the government collapse

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri (L) meets with US President Barack Obama Wednesday at the moment that Hezbollah and its allies resigned from the Lebanese government, according to an AFP photographer. The two men were meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, smiling as they posed for photographers, without making any statements. (Nader Hariri was in company with PM Hariri

Lebanese opposition Ministers : Gebran Bassil (C), Lebanon’s Minister of Energy and Water and allied to Hezbollah, announces a resignation statement as Mohammad Khalifeh (R), Minister of Health, and Hussein Haj Hassan, Minister of Agriculture, listen during a news conference in Rabieh, near Beirut, January 12, 2011. Lebanese minister Adnan Sayyed Hussein resigned on Wednesday, the state news agency said, bringing to 11 the number of ministerial resignations and effectively collapsing the government of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri

A Lebanese official says Hezbollah ministers and FPM (Free Patriotic Movement) leaded by MP General Aoun and Marada Party leaded by Frangieh allies have resigned from the Cabinet, bringing the government to the brink of collapse.

 Energy Minister Jibran Bassil told a news conference Wednesday that 10 ministers are pulling out. They need just one more minister to resign in order to force the government to fall and an 11th minister could resign later in the day.

The ministers are stepping down from the 30-member Cabinet over tensions stemming from a U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a Former Prime Minister Rafik Harir

resignation of eleven ministers including a minister that represent President Michel Suleiman  that reresent  from the government’s unity coalition Wednesday, which would topple the government and raise concerns of new protests and paralysis in Lebanon.

The Daily Star of Lebanon reports that the resignations, which were to be announced this afternoon local time, were due to Hezbollah and its allies being rabuffed in their demands for an emergency cabinet meeting Tuesday to discuss Lebanese cooperation in the United Nation’s Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). The STL is investigating the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, father of current Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who has refused to end Lebanese participation in the US-backed tribunal. Several Hezbollah members are expected to be indicted by the tribunal for involvement in the assassination.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence even as Hezbollah ministers forced the year-old unity government to collapse.

Hariri made no public comment after the Oval Office visit and immediately departed for France to consult with President Nicolas Sarkozy before returning to Beirut, according to a Lebanese official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic moves

A White House statement issued after the meeting said Obama had commended Hariri for his "steadfast leadership and efforts to reach peace, stability and consensus in Lebanon under difficult circumstances."

A source told the Daily Star that Hezbollah and Free Patriotic movement sought the emergency cabinet meeting "to stop payment of Lebanon’s share toward the financing of the S.T.L., withdraw the Lebanese judges from the tribunal, end Lebanon’s cooperation with the S.T.L., and prosecute the ‘false witnesses’ linked to the U.N. probe into Rafik Hariri’s killing…" They warned that failure to hold the meeting would result in the mass resignations of its cabinet members, bringing down the government.

حاوره: فؤاد دعبول وايوب خداج
تقويم الصفحات الاخيرة، من العام الماضي، كان مع النائب في كتلة التغيير والاصلاح الدكتور فريد الخازن، ناقش الاحداث بتداعياتها والوقائع باسلوب سياسي، وبفكر جامعي وثقافة سياسية.
في نقاشه لملف الأحداث، يرى الدكتور فريد الخازن ان الازمة الآن مرتبطة بالمحكمة الدولية وتداعياتها من جهة، وبالوضع السياسي القائم حالياً، خصوصاً قضية شهود الزور.
ويشدد على وجود قضايا طارئة ولا نقوم بها. امامنا موضوع مطروح يتعلق بترسيم الحدود البحرية بيننا وبين اسرائيل، لان هناك نفطاً وغازاً في قلب البحر، وموضوع يتعلق بكيفية ادارة الشؤون المالية للدولة.

ويدعو الدكتور الخازن الى اداء سياسي مختلف ووضع حد للهدر، وتحسين الادارة اللبنانية.
ويحث على انشاء السلطة القضائية المستقلة، وهذا هو مفتاح حل المشاكل الطائفية السياسية، لأنهم يتحولون الى طوائفهم، لعدم ثقتهم بالدولة والقانون، لانه عندما يطبق القانون ويأخذ القضاء دوره باستقلالية عن السياسيين، تنخفض نسبة الطائفية واحتماء الاشخاص بزعماء طوائفهم.
واعرب عن امله بمخرج للازمة المتعلقة بالمحكمة الدولية، وان كانت مضامينها غير معروفة، واعتقد اننا سنصل الى تسوية تجنبنا اي انعكاس سلبي على الوضع العام. وهذه هي وقائع الحديث:

نحن في مطلع عام جديد، هل تتوقعون ان يكون عام ازدهار وخير على لبنان ام عام مشاكل يعجز عن حلها؟

– لا يزال لبنان يواجه عدداً من الملفات المأزومة ولم يتعاف بشكل كامل من سنوات الحرب الماضية، ومن مرحلة ما يُسمى بالوصاية، ولا نزال نبحث لايجاد نقطة توازن في النظام السياسي وعمله. علماً انه منذ العام ٢٠٠٥ ولغاية ٢٠٠٨، مر لبنان بأزمات سياسية. وهذا النظام السياسي اللبناني لم يكن قادراً على التعامل مع المرحلة الانتقالية التي جرت بشكل سريع وغير مسبوق في العام ٢٠٠٥. واعني هنا بالتطورات الكبيرة كاغتيال الرئيس رفيق الحريري، وانسحاب الجيش السوري، وانتفاضة الاستقلال والتحول الكبير في العلاقات الاميركية – السورية والتحول السياسي الدولي تجاه لبنان. هذه كلها حصلت في فترة زمنية لا تتجاوز ٩٠ يوماً.