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US Renews Backing for Lebanon After Election Vote
The United States on Monday renewed its support for Lebanon after a surprise election victory by US allies, grouped in an anti-Syrian coalition, over opponents including Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
President Barack Obama, whose country has backed the anti-Syria bloc, said Washington would “continue to support a sovereign and independent Lebanon, committed to peace”.
“It is our sincere hope that the next government will continue along the path towards building a sovereign, independent and stable Lebanon,” he said in a statement.
Results declared by Interior Minister Ziad Baroud showed Saad al-Hariri’s pro-Western bloc had won 71 of parliament’s 128 seats, against 57 for an opposition alliance that groups Shi’ite factions Hezbollah and Amal with Christian leader Michel Aoun.
Hariri’s total includes three independents who ran on his lists in Sunday’s election, which many had predicted would produce a slim victory for Hezbollah and its partners.
The vote was a blow to Syria and Iran, which support Hezbollah, and welcome news for the United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which back the “March 14” bloc, named after the date of a huge rally against Syria’s military presence in 2005.
France, another backer of the bloc, praised the “smooth functioning” of the election.
A 100-strong European Union observer mission concluded in a statement that the vote had been contested “in a polarised but generally peaceful environment within an improved legal framework which nevertheless needs further reform”.
Former US President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center was also observing the election, said the results were “fairly accurate as a judgment of the will of the people”. “There will always be some violations,” he added at a news conference.
Michael Williams, the UN special coordinatior for Lebanon, said the formation of the new cabinet would take time, adding that it could take several weeks after the designation of the new prime minister. “It will take time and it has done always in previous Lebanese experiences,” he told Reuters.
Some analysts expected lengthy horse-trading between and within rival blocs before the next cabinet is formed.
Hariri has previously said the opposition could join a unity government, but without the veto power it has demanded in the past – and achieved under a Qatari-mediated deal that followed an armed showdown in the streets of Beirut in May 2008.
Hezbollah, classified by the United States as a terrorist organisation, sees veto rights as vital to fend off any challenge to its status as an armed group resisting Israel. It fought a 34-day war with the Jewish state in 2006.
The election result renewed the mandate Hariri first won in a 2005 poll after Syrian troops left Lebanon amid an outcry over the assassination of his statesman father Rafik al-Hariri.
Hariri, a Sunni, nominated Fouad Siniora to lead the last government, but is viewed as front-runner to take his place, following in the footsteps of his slain father, who as prime minister oversaw Lebanon’s rebuilding after its 1975-90 civil war.
Hezbollah and Amal swept the vote in mainly Shi’ite areas, but defeat for Aoun in the key Christian districts of Zahleh and Ashrafiyeh deprived the alliance of the majority it had sought.
The EU observer mission said vote-buying had marred the election. “Financial resources played an excessively large role in the campaign and new regulations on spending have yet to have any notable effort on this phenomenon,” it added.
Amal leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he fully accepted the results and congratulated the winners. “Lebanon has defeated all bets on chaos and strife and again gained its existence and reputation as a democratic country,” he said.
Lebanon’s rival camps are at odds over Hezbollah’s guerrilla force, more powerful than the Lebanese army, and relations with Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades until 2005.
Tensions in Lebanon mostly have been kept in check since the Qatari-mediated accord last year dragged the country back from the brink of civil war. A thaw in relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria has also helped maintain stability in recent months.
Nadim Ladki
Reuters