Lebanonwire.com | Lebanon seeks new leader after PM quits amid mass protests

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March 1, 2005

Lebanon seeks new leader after PM quits amid mass protests
by Nayla Razzouk

BEIRUT, March 1 (AFP) - Lebanon began the search for a new prime minister Tuesday after the dramatic collapse of the pro-Syrian government in the face of mass public protests left the country facing an uncertain future.

Prime Minister Omar Karameh's surprise resignation after just four months in office was hailed as a rare display of people power in the Middle East and greeted with jubilation by thousands of opposition demonstrators in Beirut.

But the euphoria was tinged with apprehension about the future of the country which 15 years on still bears the scars of the 1975-1990 civil war, while the international community renewed its calls for a Syrian pullout.

"The fall of the government is not the end of the road," cautioned the Al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

The opposition, whose campaign of peaceful rallies was sparked by the assassination of Karameh's predecessor Rafiq Hariri in a massive bomb blast two weeks ago, vowed it would not stop its protests until Syria was out of
Lebanon.

Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud has granted MPs 48 hours to decide on a candidate for the post of prime minister which is customarily given to a member of the Sunni Muslim community, a presidential spokesman told AFP.

Walid Jumblatt, the prominent Druze opposition MP, called for the formation of a "neutral" transitional government which should oversee a partial withdrawal of Syrian troops ahead of elections due by the end of May.

He said Lebanon refused to "remain hostage" to Syria, which first sent its troops into its smaller neighbour a year into the civil war and still has about 14,000 men on the ground.

"We cannot accept to be fooled all the time. This is the fifth so-called Syrian army redeployment," he said of a recently promised Syrian troop move that has yet to be carried out.

Opposition MP Ghassan Mukheiber also told AFP that "we are seeking a prime minister who will be neutral and not from any of the two camps."

"We want an interim cabinet to uncover the truth about Hariri's assassination, draft a law and oversee elections this spring and reach an agreement for a Syrian pullout which should be achieved before the elections are held," he said.

Lahoud told a visiting UN team of experts helping the probe into Hariri's assassination that Lebanese authorities were determined to cooperate with the world body and to carry out the inquiry "until the end."

The United States, which ratcheted up the pressure on Damascus following the Hariri killing, lauded Karameh's announcement as the fruit of a "Cedar Revolution" against Syria's political and military dominance.

"We fully support the Lebanese people in their pursuit of an independent, democratic and sovereign Lebanon, free of outside interference and intimidation," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier said in a joint statement in London.

General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, said he believed the departure of Syrian forces from Lebanon was "inevitable."

He also expressed confidence that the Lebanese were capable of establishing a stable, sovereign state and not slip back into civil war.

Karameh announced the resignation of his government during a stormy parliamentary debate over the murder of his political rival Hariri, which many blame on the pro-Syrian regime and its political masters in Damascus.

Syria described Karameh's resignation as an "internal matter" but added that it hoped to see the formation of a new government that would extricate the country from the "current extremely delicate circumstances."

The Lebanese press noted the opposition's victory but voiced fears for the future given that the opposition is insisting on the departure of the entire pro-Syrian regime and a full Syrian troop pullout.

The unprecedented street demonstrations and political crisis stemmed from the February 14 murder of Hariri, a five-time prime minister and billionaire businessman credited with rebuilding the country after the war.

On Monday, Martyrs' Square where Hariri is buried was transformed into a sea of red and white Lebanese flags bearing the national cedar tree symbol as tens of thousands of people defied a government ban on demonstrations.