Agreement struck in Lebanon to end political crisis

International Herald Tribune - France

BEIRUT, Lebanon: The agreement reached by Lebanese political factions early Wednesday amounted to a significant shift of power in favor of the militant Shiite group Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition, who won the power to veto any cabinet decision.

The sweeping deal to form a new government promised an end to 18 months of political deadlock here, and underscored the rising power of Iran and Syria, which have backed Hezbollah in a proxy battle against the governing coalition and its American and Saudi allies.

Government leaders said they had given way on major provisions because they felt the alternative to an agreement was war. They also said they won a pledge that no faction would use its weapons internally, as Hezbollah and its allies did during street battles this month in the worst internal fighting since Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

"We avoided civil war," said Walid Jumblatt, a leader of the governing coalition. He added that the agreement called for a future dialogue on weapons, a clause that he and other government leaders hoped would eventually allow them to raise the issue of Hezbollah's arsenal.

The agreement was brokered by Arab mediators in Doha, Qatar, and involved intensive last-minute diplomacy among the major regional players in Lebanon, including Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Before the agreement, an Iranian adviser assured Saudi officials that Iran did not want a confrontation with Arab nations, said an adviser to the Saudi government, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. Iran agreed to use its influence to prevent Hezbollah from entering Sunni Muslim areas of Lebanon, the adviser said; such incursions occurred during the clashes two weeks ago.

The agreement specifies a new government and a new election law, ending an 18-month opposition sit-in that had suffocated business in Beirut's downtown commercial center. It also calls for the election of the army chief, General Michel Suleiman, as president. The post has been vacant since November.

But the deal leaves unresolved the questions that provoked the crisis in December 2006. Those include Hezbollah's weapons and Lebanon's relations with Syria, which ended its 29-year military presence here in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The divisive issue of cooperation with a United Nations tribunal to investigate Hariri's murder and 10 other killings that followed also remains to be solved. Pro-government officials accuse Syria of involvement in those assassinations.

The governing coalition hailed the new pact as a fair compromise, as did officials in Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and France.

In Washington, the Bush administration portrayed the agreement as a good step. C. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said that the deal could make Syria's eventual return to Lebanon impossible. He contended that the fighting had so damaged the images of Hezbollah and Syria as its backer that Lebanon's Sunnis and Christians would not welcome Syria back.

In the past, the United States has urged the government majority to take a firm stand in its conflict with the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Many Lebanese voiced relief at the news that their country's long political stalemate appeared to be over. Crowds flooded happily into the usually empty downtown on a warm afternoon, and many shops that had been closed for more than a year were reopening. The tents where opposition members had camped out for 18 months were slowly being dismantled, with people packing their gear into pickup trucks.

"We came here to celebrate; it's a dream coming true," said Chadi Ahmadieh, 32, who works at Solidere, the company that rebuilt the downtown area. But he added: "This solution is like a shot of anesthesia that will at least get us through the summer. There are still differences over many issues."

The agreement was announced as Israel acknowledged that it was involved in indirect talks on a possible peace deal with Syria brokered by Turkey. That fueled speculation that the two developments were linked, though officials involved in the Doha talks said they knew of no connection.

But some analysts said Hezbollah's decision to assert itself militarily this month might have been partly based on a calculation that it could be endangered by a deal between Israel, its nemesis, and Syria, its backer.

"Hezbollah's decision to use force might have been partly motivated by a fear that Syria and Israel were going to make peace, and that it had to consolidate its power in Lebanon before that happened," said Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

The agreement in Doha provides for a government of 16 cabinet seats for the governing majority, 11 for the opposition and 3 to be nominated by the new president. That will allow the opposition to veto cabinet decisions, a demand the governing coalition refused to accept until now.

Heated last-minute negotiations over how to reshape Lebanon's electoral districting system — which will significantly influence power-sharing after the 2009 parliamentary elections — led to a compromise that divides the country into smaller districts, allowing for more equal representation of its various sects.

Several Lebanese government officials said they felt they had no choice but to accept the deal. Although their side has long had strong verbal support from the United States and Saudi Arabia, they appeared to have overplayed their hand earlier this month when they challenged Hezbollah's private telecommunications network and its control over the Beirut airport.

Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, declared those government decisions an act of war, and the group sent its fighters and their allies into the streets on May 7. Within a day, the Shiite group had seized most of west Beirut. The violence continued in northern and eastern Lebanon, leaving at least 62 people dead and threatening to push the country into an open war.