BEIRUT, 10 July 2005 — Firebrand Christian former Gen. Michel Aoun said yesterday he would reconsider his decision not to participate in Lebanon’s first government since the pullout of Syrian troops after a three-decade presence. Negotiations with Prime Minister-designate Fuad Siniora, who has been attempting to form a government since June 30, collapsed last week after Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement insisted it be given the Ministry of Justice to put in place reforms and an anti-corruption drive.
“After (Siniora’s) decision to revisit talks and consider the composition of the cabinet ... we have returned to the principle of participation,” Aoun told reporters after a meeting with his movement. “We hope that this situation will speed up the formation of the government because Lebanon needs a responsible regime and we cannot regain time lost. I hope that the government will be formed rapidly and that we will participate in it,” Aoun said.
“There are several questions still up in the air. We have examined the principle of returning to participation, but many things must be discussed away from the media.” Aoun did not say whether Siniora has promised his party the Justice Ministry. That is a demand that the Future Movement’s Saad Hariri, who heads the biggest bloc in Lebanon’s 128-member Parliament with 37 seats, had deemed “impossible.”
Hariri said his Future Movement needed to control the ministry amid the ongoing enquiry into the Feb. 14 murder of his father, the former prime minister and tycoon Rafik Hariri. This prompted Aoun to tell Hariri that his bloc of 21 MPs would not be taking part in the government. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud on Wednesday had asked Siniora to take up talks again with Aoun. However, a key difficulty remains for Siniora, with the Shiite movements Hezbollah and Amal demanding the Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, a French public prosecutor opened a judicial inquiry Friday into the murder on June 2 in Beirut of prominent Franco-Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir. His action followed formal complaints from family members and Kassir’s wife, Gisele Khoury, herself a well-known journalist for Arabic television channel Al-Arabiya.
The prosecutor will be investigating claims that the murder took place “in relation with a terrorist undertaking.” Khoury took advantage of a French law allowing her to file a complaint against “person or persons unknown.” Speaking on Lebanese television Friday Khoury said a specialist anti-terrorist judge was expected in Beirut “next week”. Khoury said that she, Kassir’s children, press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and a major Lebanese newspaper for which Kassir worked were civil parties to the case.
She criticized the investigation, saying that those conducting it had not had freedom to do their job.
