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Lebanon Deadlock Closer To Ending

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The New York Times

Published: May 22, 2008

BEIRUT, Lebanon - An agreement reached by Lebanese political factions Wednesday amounted to a significant shift of power in favor of the militant Shiite group Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition, who won the power to veto any Cabinet decision.

The sweeping deal to form a new government promised an end to 18 months of crippling political deadlock and underscored the rising power of Iran and Syria, which have backed Hezbollah in a proxy battle against the governing coalition and its U.S. and Saudi allies.
Government leaders said they had given way on major provisions because they felt the alternative to an agreement was war.

They also said they won a pledge that no faction would use its weapons internally, as Hezbollah and its allies did during street battles this month in the worst internal fighting since Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

"We avoided civil war," said Walid Jumblatt, a leader of the governing coalition. The agreement was brokered by Arab mediators in Doha, Qatar.

It calls for the election of the army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman as president. The post has been vacant since November.

In Washington, the Bush administration portrayed the agreement as a good step. C. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said that despite Hezbollah's veto power over the Cabinet, the deal could make Syria's eventual return to Lebanon impossible.

He contended that the image of Hezbollah and Syria as its backer had been so damaged by the fighting that Lebanon's Sunni and Christian populations would not welcome Syria back.

The agreement in Doha provides for a government of 16 Cabinet seats for the governing majority, 11 for the opposition and three to be nominated by the new president.

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