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Hezbollah gains power in lebanon after fighting { May 16 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051503758.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051503758.html
Factions in Lebanon Agree to Meet for Talks
Government Strikes Deal With Hezbollah, but Issues Remain
By Anthony Shadid and Alia Ibrahim
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 16, 2008; A08
BEIRUT, May 15 -- Arab mediators brokered a deal Thursday to end Lebanon's worst internal fighting since its 15-year civil war, inviting factions to Qatar for talks but leaving unresolved questions that have embroiled the country for 18 months.
In a sign of ongoing tension in Lebanon, announcement of the agreement was delayed repeatedly through the day, as politicians haggled over the minutia of phrases and the sequence of single words. In effect, the deal returned Lebanon to the status quo that prevailed before Hezbollah, angry at government decisions, sent its militiamen and allied fighters to occupy parts of Beirut last week. But the agreement also underlined Hezbollah's strength following the fighting, as its opponents in the U.S.-backed government essentially acceded to demands that the group had made at the start of the crisis.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim al-Thani, who led the delegation, said the talks would begin Friday in the Persian Gulf country's capital of Doha, and would continue "until an agreement was reached." Leaders in the Hezbollah-led opposition spoke of turning a new page. But government officials, forced into a humiliating decision Wednesday to retract the measures that had targeted Hezbollah, were dubious of a quick breakthrough, and many analysts believe that no international consensus among the key players in Lebanon -- Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the United States -- has emerged yet on a sweeping compromise.
"The agreement simply takes us back to where we were. It doesn't resolve anything," said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut. "What happened was a total squandering of human lives and resources."
The latest crisis in the long-standing confrontation between the Lebanese government and the opposition began last week when the Cabinet ordered an investigation into the Shiite Muslim movement's telecommunications network and reassigned the head of security at the Beirut airport, who is considered close to Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallah, the group's secretary-general, said the moves were tantamount to a declaration of war.
The next day, Hezbollah deployed its fighters across mainly Muslim West Beirut, routing militiamen loyal to government figures in hours. Barricades were erected across highways and intersections, closing the airport and port. While fighters soon withdrew, the roads were only opened after the announcement Thursday. Residents lined the streets to watch bulldozers and trucks haul away burned tires, dirt and rubble, and the national carrier, Middle East Airlines, dispatched its first flight here in a week on Thursday evening.
All the factions' leaders have pledged to attend the talks in principle, said Ghazi Aridi, the information minister, although Nasrallah was expected to remain here for security reasons. Their task is complicated by the same issues that have paralyzed the country since 2006: reconstituting a Cabinet that lacks representation of Shiite Muslims, the country's single-largest community; filling a presidency that has remained vacant since November; and reopening a parliament effectively closed by the crisis.
So far, both sides have agreed in principle on the choice of Gen. Michel Suleiman, the army commander, as president, although his standing has diminished among government supporters, who believe the army facilitated Hezbollah's seizure of West Beirut. The sides remain unsettled over a law for parliamentary elections and more sharply divided over sharing power in the Cabinet, where Hezbollah and its allies want the power of veto.
Until the latest crisis, those negotiations had proceeded under a phrase that dates to the 1975-90 civil war of "la ghalib wala maghloub" or "no victor and no vanquished." The words were even mentioned Thursday by Hezbollah's deputy leader, Naim Kassem.
"Hezbollah's military victory is not going to be capitalized on for political purposes," an official with the Hezbollah-led opposition said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
But the group's show of force and the ensuing sectarian clashes that left at least 62 people dead, replete with marauding urban gunmen redolent of the civil war, have refigured the constellation of power, setting down new red lines. Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, Hezbollah has already made clear that it will not permit any government move that targets its infrastructure.
"I think we've gotten over this sort of showdown between the state and Hezbollah, and Hezbollah has won. It has made it clear that you're not to do this again," said Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. "Now, we're in more of the stage of bargaining, the creative, patchwork quilt to throw over this situation."
"Now if you want to elect a president, the rules are clear," he said.
The past two days underlined the new arrangement. In the contentious Cabinet meeting Wednesday, at least two ministers reportedly threatened to resign over the agreement to repeal the two decisions. And the deal announced Thursday met demands that Nasrallah made last week, before his fighters occupied West Beirut, that the government agree to a dialogue without conditions. Some government supporters insisted the disarming of Hezbollah be put on the agenda. Instead, they settled for a mild suggestion that the parties would address "armed groups' relationship to the state."
"We were very clear from the beginning, we're not interested in civil strife," said Aridi, the information minister. "We have to find an exit for all of us."
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
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