Finally, the Lebanon picture puzzle is whole. The country now has a government to go along with its president.
Under the terms of the deal reached in Doha in May, the share of seats was never in doubt but the exact composition of the new Cabinet was. It might have been expected that the parliamentary majority would hold 16 seats and the opposition 11 in the new Cabinet. Nor is it surprising that the Cabinet is divided equally between Christians and Muslims, for, this is in accordance with Lebanon’s sectarian political system. However, what is new and rare for Lebanon, and many other countries for that matter, is that both the parliamentary majority and the opposition made concessions that cleared the way for the Cabinet’s formation. The opposition dropped demands to take two of the four key ministerial portfolios: Defense, interior, finance and foreign affairs, thus deciding to manage their six-week dispute and 18-month political crisis in all through what Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called democratic institutions and dialogue, not force and intimidation.
There was no problem in dividing the seats between the members of the opposition parties among themselves, namely, Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, and the Free Patriotic Movement headed by Michel Aoun and a number of other small parties. The major obstacle was the number of seats Siniora was willing to give to the opposition. The ball then rolled into the camp of the March 14 parties. Filling the remaining governmental seats proved to be harder than expected. Or probably, as hard as expected since the mission required a certain amount of sharing and understanding between allies — which seemed to be lacking in the March 14 group.
Late last week, Siniora reached an agreement with the opposition, by which Aoun’s group would get five Cabinet seats whereas Amal and Hezbollah would get the ministries of foreign affairs, industry, health, work, youth and sports and a state minister. The agreement came after the main political players in the country decided that there are two kinds of ministries: One that provides services and one that pertains to sovereignty such as the defense, interior or foreign ministries. Those ministries were needed for political influence.
As for Hezbollah, the more than a third of the Cabinet seats it captured will allow it and its allies to have a veto on the major decisions of the government. However, its right to keep its weapons remains highly contentious. The group views itself and is viewed by others as the legitimate resistance to Israel although its detractors believe Hezbollah has had no reason to keep its weapons once since Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah’s counterargument, that it needs its arsenal to deter and defend Lebanon against another possible Israeli attack, is acceptable but the complaint persists that Hezbollah is the one who dragged the whole country into war two years ago. Not to be forgotten, too, is that Hezbollah’s new power was gained after its leader Hassan Nasrallah violated the group’s long-standing pledge not to take up arms against other Lebanese factions, which it did in May, reviving memories of Lebanon’s 15-year sectarian civil war.
The final ministerial lineup is a compromise in which it is hard for any one group or person to claim a clear victory. Elections are scheduled for next year and those polls may give a better indication of the future direction of Lebanon. For now President Suleiman presides over the first government Lebanon has had since November 2006 with representatives from all the major parties. That is an achievement worth savoring.
