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Lebanon’s Aoun should stop making concessions to Saudi’s Hariri

Labib Chemali As Lebanon is about to enter its third month without a government, the Saudi backed Saadedine Hariri of the Future Movement is becoming increasingly ambitious as the opposition makes continual supplementary concessions for the sake of national unity in order to provide the Lebanese people with a government. Acceptance of the Election Result The first of the opposition’s concessions has been their acceptance of June’s election result despite being noted as one of the most corrupt elections in the history of Lebanon. Christopher Dickey in Newsweek wrote: "In Lebanon, the Saudis gave massive financial support to the victorious coalition of Saad Hariri. As long ago as March, one well-connected operative from Riyadh was telling me privately but with evident pride that his country had spent more in Lebanon, a nation of 4 million, than the record-breaking $715 million Barack Obama's campaign spent in the United States." This is merely what the Saudis are admitting to although Lebanon’s Reserve Bank Governor, Riad Salameh recently announced that “$16 billion USD were poured into Lebanon in the period preceding the parliamentary elections". The Arab Monitor reported that the US-based International Republican Institute opened up the “Down Town Media Company” a front that was actually running the election campaign of Hariri’s March 14 coalition. In addition to the usual pre-election campaigns and pressures created to influence the outcome of the polls, a palpable move saw American Vice President Joe Biden visit Lebanon just weeks prior to the election where he clearly announced that the United States will review Foreign Aid to Lebanon if the Opposition wins. Another action saw the blocking of the Lebanese Diaspora’s right to vote in Embassies and Consulates in their home countries, yet then saw the selective shipping of Lebanese expatriates by the tens of thousands to vote in Lebanon for March 14; additionally influential and effective was that Sunni voters were moved into Christian districts to stack the Electoral Roll despite these voters not residing in these districts. As one official from the Free Patriotic Movement (Aoun’s Party) stated, “Lebanon did not need International Election Observers, it needed Election Investigators” and despite all of this, Aoun increased the size of his Change & Reform Bloc to 27 MP’s rendering it the largest Christian and second largest overall bloc in Lebanon’s parliament. Proportional Representation The second concession the opposition is not adhering to, is their demand in having Proportional Representation as is normal with any National Unity Government with the following break outs in a 30 Minister Government: -62 Mp's to Hariri and March 14 allies equals 49 % = 14 Ministers -9 Mp's to Jumblatt (who recently defected from Hariri’s March 14 coalition) equals 7% = 2 Ministers -57 Mp's to opposition equals 44% = 14 Ministers Out of the 57 Opposition Mp's, 27 are with Aoun's Change & Reform Bloc and therefore he is entitled to 7 out of the 14 Ministers. The opposition however accepted the 15-5-10 formula of giving 15 Ministers to Hariri and allies, 5 Ministers to the consensus President Michel Suleiman and having only a total of 10 Ministries (only 5 of which will go Aoun). The Securing Third plus One Since it is clear that the two largest victims of the elections were the Lebanese people and Democracy, March 14 has no clear mandate to govern on its own let alone have two-thirds of the vote in the Council of Ministers to make any decision it wants. The Lebanese have distaste from when the previous Future Movement lead government banned Lebanon’s Good Friday public holiday while it had not passed a budget in over 2 years. Again the opposition accepted only 10 Ministries and a not the Securing Third plus One (11 Ministries) in order to prevent power from being usurped again by the Future Movement and allies. Despite all of these concessions by the opposition for the sake of national unity and government formation, the Hariri group is now further fabricating opposition demands as a means not to form a Government of National Unity. They are continuing their attacks on Aoun personally, his party(The Free Patriotic Movement) and parliamentary bloc through their local and international media empire. Meanwhile the Lebanese people who have suffered significantly at the hands of the Future Movement’s institutionalised corruption (since their coming to power in 1992 on the back of foreign military intervention in Lebanon) are continuing to suffer as Lebanon is still without a government. Another silent victim in all of this the dignity of Lebanon’s Sunni Community who for over half a century has had a rich history in opposing what they perceive as “American Imperialism” are now lying dormant at the feet of the US policy in the Middle East. Despite purported links with Al Qaeda affiliated extremist Sunni groups, the Saudi backed Future Movement of Prime Minister Designate Saadedine Hariri is perceived as pro Western as they do not oppose the naturalization and permanent settlement of the half million plus Palestinian refugees in Lebanon at the expense of the Lebanese indigenous population. Such a move would be seen to serve Israel as it would then absolved of the responsibility of the refugees that resulted from its creation (and in contravention of United Nations Security Council Resolution 194); Saudi Arabia would also see benefits as a such a move would tilt Lebanon's delicate demographic balance of 4 million people in favour of the Sunni sect since the Palestinian refugees are primarily Sunni Muslim. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia are the United States major allies in the Middle East. For round the clock news on Lebanon & the world World in English, visit www.leb-news.com Please click here to view more articles.