Lebanese president: Hariri government is still in place
Lebanese president Michel Aoun said yesterday that prime minister Saad Hariri’s government remained in place despite his surprise resignation more than a week ago.
The statement came just hours after Mr Hariri made his first public comments since announcing his resignation from Saudi Arabia. The former prime minister said he would return to Lebanon within days and that he may withdraw his resignation if Lebanon’s political factions can agree to stop interfering in regional affairs – a reference to Hizbollah’s role in the Syrian war and its alleged role in the war in Yemen.
Mr Hariri also defended his resignation.
“We cannot say that we apply disassociation and at the same time see a group interfering in Yemen, or be dragged to relations with the Syrian regime, which I will not do. I warned many times but I did not get any response,” Mr Hariri said.
“There was a danger in Lebanon and I wanted to take additional steps and send a positive shock.”
His remarks came during a television interview with Lebanese journalist Paula Yacoubian in Riyadh, where Mr Hariri has remained since his resignation. He insisted the Saudi government has not placed him under house arrest, as some of his political supporters have suggested.
Shortly before the interview
broadcast on Sunday night, Mr Aoun reiterated his belief that Mr Hariri was under duress and that anything he said should be “subject to doubt”.
But yesterday, Mr Aoun appeared to moderate his stance, saying Mr Hariri’s remarks proved the consensus government he had presided over during the last year could remain in place, according to Reuters.
Mr Hariri’s appointment as prime minister late last year brought to an end a two-year period of no government in Lebanon. But it required the support of Hizbollah and Mr Aoun, who is allied with the Shiite political party and militia. Although Mr Hariri and Hizbollah had long been political rivals and at times bitter enemies, Mr Hariri managed to walk a fine line between appeasing the group and the demands of Saudi Arabia, his own foreign patron.
“I am proud of the consensus we reached and I am not turning my back on it, and want it to succeed,” Mr Hariri said on Sunday. “Political parties are allowed, but are they allowed to play a foreign role and make us Lebanese carry its weight?”
While Mr Hariri’s speech may have been encouraging insofar as offering a way out of Lebanon’s current political crisis, many observers remarked that he still appeared to be more a mouthpiece for Saudi policy rather than someone speaking on his own behalf.
“He looked like a broken man who did not believe what he was saying – who is following orders and relaying a specific message,” said Randa Slim, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, has supported Hizbollah financially and militarily since its creation in the early 1980s and throughout its evolution to become Lebanon’s dominant political actor today.
Yesterday, French foreign minister Jean-Yves le Drian called for “non-interference” in Lebanon.
“For there to be a political solution in Lebanon, it is necessary that all of the political leaders have total freedom of movement and that non-interference is a fundamental principle,” Mr Le Drian said as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Also yesterday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said Mr Hariri’s remarks a day before gave the “small hope of the possibility of his return to Lebanon”.
“Iran does not interfere in Lebanon’s affairs,” Mr Qasemi said.
Last month, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani boasted of Iran’s growing influence in the region, a comment that angered Mr Hariri as well as Saudi Arabia.
“The greatness of the nation of Iran in the region is more than at any other time. In Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, northern Africa, in the Persian Gulf region – where can action be taken without Iran?” Mr Rouhani said.
In the past five years, Hizbollah has become a critical player in the Syrian war, sending thousands of fighters to shore up the government there. Analysts said a more likely theatre for compromise would be Yemen, which Mr Hariri brought up more than once during his speech.
“I guess what the Saudis really want are assurances that Hizbollah isn’t active in Yemen,” said Amal Saad, a political science professor at Lebanese University.
“Since Hizbollah has never admitted to such a role, that shouldn’t be too hard.”
Ms Saad said she was optimistic that the crisis could be resolved.
“Hariri’s willingness to reach a compromise with Hizbollah and retract his resignation, in addition to the conciliatory tone of his interview vis-avis Hizbollah, indicates it’s now likely a solution can be reached similar to the status quo ante.”
Meanwhile, a senior Lebanese Christian leader was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday for a two-day visit planned before Mr Hariri announced his resignation on November 4.
Cardinal Bechara El Rai, the head of Lebanon’s Maronite sect, the country’s largest Christian community, was expected to meet with Mr Hariri.