BEIRUT, 7 November 2004 — Lebanon’s new government yesterday won a vote of confidence by the narrowest of margins, leading opposition lawmakers to accuse pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karameh of dividing the country for the sake of its powerful neighbor.
After three days of debate, the 30-strong government, formed on Oct. 26 by Karameh, won 59 votes out of the 128 MPs, while 24 voted against and 23 abstained, parliamentary president Nabih Berri announced.
The Druze parliamentary bloc, headed by Walid Jumblatt, and the Christian opposition headed by Maronite leader Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, voted against, while MPs loyal to former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and those from the Shiite resistance movement Hezbollah abstained.
Christian MP Fares Sweid told Karameh: “We have our Lebanon, you have yours. Our Lebanon, Christian and Muslim, is based on international legitimacy.” “The government speaks loudly about its inability to govern so that it can justify Syrian interference,” he said.
The majority was the slimmest won by a Lebanese government since the end of the country’s 15-year civil war in 1990. Washington has described Lebanon’s new prime minister as an inappropriate choice owing to his strong links with Syria, with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield saying “the United States is extremely worried by the current situation in Lebanon because of Syrian interference.”
