ASSOCIATED PRESS SERVICE
DOHA - Rival Lebanese leaders signed a deal on Wednesday to end 18 months of political conflict, pulling their country away from the brink of a new civil war and paving the way for the election of a new president.
Parliament will be convened on Sunday to elect army chief General Michel Suleiman as head of state, aides to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Reuters in Qatar, where the rival sides signed the deal after six days of Arab-mediated talks.
The agreement between the U.S.-backed ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition resolved a dispute over a law for holding 2009 parliamentary polls and met the opposition’s long-standing demand for veto power in cabinet.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, increased pressure on the ruling alliance this month by routing its followers in a military campaign. The Qatari-led negotiations in Doha built on mediation that ended violence in which 81 people were killed.
It was Lebanon’s worst civil conflict since the 1975-1990 war and exacerbated tensions between Shia s loyal to Hezbollah and Druze and Sunni followers of the ruling coalition.
‘Today, we are opening a new page in Lebanon’s history,’ said Saad Al Hariri, a Sunni politician who leads the governing coalition and has close ties to Saudi Arabia. His supporters were among those defeated by Hezbollah.
‘I know the wounds are deep, but we have no one except each other,’ said Hariri, who is seen as a strong contender for prime minister in the new cabinet. Hezbollah delegation leader Mohammed Raad said the deal would help ‘towards strengthening coexistence and building the state’.
Iran and Syria both welcomed the agreement.
‘This is a compromise that if the Lebanese use well could be transformed into a solid agreement,’ said Talal Salman, a commentator in the pro-opposition as-Safir newspaper. ‘It redresses the balance in the no-victor, no-vanquished formula.’
Power struggle
The anti-Damascus ruling coalition had long refused to meet the opposition’s demand for cabinet veto power, saying the opposition was trying to restore Syrian control of Lebanon.
Syria was forced to withdraw troops from Lebanon in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri, Saad Al Hariri’s father.
The United States held up the withdrawal as a foreign policy success. But the Hezbollah-led opposition has steadily been increasing pressure on Washington’s allies in Lebanon.
Opposition ministers quit Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s cabinet in November, 2006 in protest at the governing alliance’s refusal to meet the demand for veto power. The resignations stripped the cabinet of all its Shia members and upset Lebanon’s delicate sectarian power-sharing system.
Hezbollah’s military campaign brought more pressure to bear and forced the government to rescind two measures which the Shia group viewed as hostile enough to justify a military response.
The opposition began to remove a protest encampment that has paralysed Beirut’s central commercial district since December, 2006. The tent city had been erected to press the opposition’s demands.
The deal included a pledge by both sides not to use violence in political disputes, echoing a paragraph in an agreement drafted in Beirut that ended the fighting.
DOHA - Rival Lebanese leaders signed a deal on Wednesday to end 18 months of political conflict, pulling their country away from the brink of a new civil war and paving the way for the election of a new president.
Parliament will be convened on Sunday to elect army chief General Michel Suleiman as head of state, aides to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Reuters in Qatar, where the rival sides signed the deal after six days of Arab-mediated talks.
The agreement between the U.S.-backed ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition resolved a dispute over a law for holding 2009 parliamentary polls and met the opposition’s long-standing demand for veto power in cabinet.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, increased pressure on the ruling alliance this month by routing its followers in a military campaign. The Qatari-led negotiations in Doha built on mediation that ended violence in which 81 people were killed.
It was Lebanon’s worst civil conflict since the 1975-1990 war and exacerbated tensions between Shia s loyal to Hezbollah and Druze and Sunni followers of the ruling coalition.
‘Today, we are opening a new page in Lebanon’s history,’ said Saad Al Hariri, a Sunni politician who leads the governing coalition and has close ties to Saudi Arabia. His supporters were among those defeated by Hezbollah.
‘I know the wounds are deep, but we have no one except each other,’ said Hariri, who is seen as a strong contender for prime minister in the new cabinet. Hezbollah delegation leader Mohammed Raad said the deal would help ‘towards strengthening coexistence and building the state’.
Iran and Syria both welcomed the agreement.
‘This is a compromise that if the Lebanese use well could be transformed into a solid agreement,’ said Talal Salman, a commentator in the pro-opposition as-Safir newspaper. ‘It redresses the balance in the no-victor, no-vanquished formula.’
Power struggle
The anti-Damascus ruling coalition had long refused to meet the opposition’s demand for cabinet veto power, saying the opposition was trying to restore Syrian control of Lebanon.
Syria was forced to withdraw troops from Lebanon in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri, Saad Al Hariri’s father.
The United States held up the withdrawal as a foreign policy success. But the Hezbollah-led opposition has steadily been increasing pressure on Washington’s allies in Lebanon.
Opposition ministers quit Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s cabinet in November, 2006 in protest at the governing alliance’s refusal to meet the demand for veto power. The resignations stripped the cabinet of all its Shia members and upset Lebanon’s delicate sectarian power-sharing system.
Hezbollah’s military campaign brought more pressure to bear and forced the government to rescind two measures which the Shia group viewed as hostile enough to justify a military response.
The opposition began to remove a protest encampment that has paralysed Beirut’s central commercial district since December, 2006. The tent city had been erected to press the opposition’s demands.
The deal included a pledge by both sides not to use violence in political disputes, echoing a paragraph in an agreement drafted in Beirut that ended the fighting.
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