BEIRUT, 22 October 2004 — President Emile Lahoud yesterday appointed staunch pro-Syrian politician Omar Karami to form the next government, replacing billionaire Rafik Hariri. Lahoud, a close ally of Syria, named Karami after polling legislators, according to a presidential statement read by Lahoud’s spokesman, Rafik Shalala.
Karami’s appointment was marred by a boycott by a little less than a quarter of the legislature — lawmakers opposed to Syrian domination of their country. They refused to meet with the president in the morning for constitutionally mandated consultations.
An informal poll of legislators indicated that Karami, who was prime minister in 1990-92, had the support of at least 71 of the Parliament’s 128 members.
“On the basis of consultations, President Lahoud summoned the Honorable Omar Karami and asked him to form a new government,” the presidential statement read.
The return of Karami, who was forced to resign in 1992 amid street riots during an economic upheaval, comes as Lebanon faces its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. “I will not promise miracles,” Karami, a 70-year-old lawyer, told reporters as he accepted the post. He said he would soon meet with parliamentary blocs to form a Cabinet.
Karami comes from a prominent political family from Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city. His father, Abdul-Hamid Karami, was a leader of the movement that led to Lebanon’s independence from France in 1943.
He rose to political prominence after his brother, many-time Prime Minister Rashid Karami, was killed by a bomb planted under his seat on a military helicopter in 1987 during the civil war.
