Syria set to maintain grip on Lebanon

LEBANON President Emile Lahoud looks set to ask outgoing pro-Syrian prime minister Omar Karami to form a government, a step sure to anger the anti-Syrian opposition who pressured him to resign in the first place.

Mr Lahoud, buoyed by a mass rally in support of his Syrian backers, began consultations with MPs that were likely to preserve Syria’s political grip on its much smaller neighbour.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s bloc named Karami as prime minister, as did the deputies of guerrilla group Hizbollah. Karami resigned as prime minister last week after huge anti-Syrian protests in Beirut but stayed on as caretaker.

Other pro-Syrian MPs were expected to follow, making it all but certain Karami would be reinstated. Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Lebanese flooded central Beirut on Tuesday for a pro-Syrian rally called by the Hizbollah militant group that dwarfed previous protests demanding that Syrian troops quit Lebanon.

It was the first major show of popular support for Syria in Beirut since the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri touched off daily anti-Syrian protests, mainly involving Maronite Christians.

The rival rallies, each using the Lebanese cedar flag to show patriotism, reveal deep rifts in Lebanon over Syria’s role and the future of Hizbollah, the country’s last armed militia.

Syrian troops continued to redeploy overnight and yesterday to eastern Lebanon in the first stage of a two-phase pull-out, security sources said.

US President George W Bush again told Syria to pull out of Lebanon before parliamentary polls due by May.

Syria’s ambassador to the US, Imad Moustapha, said Syria would completely withdraw before May.

Under Lebanon’s constitution, Lahoud is required to meet all parliamentary groups to take their nominations then announce the prime minister whose name came up most.

The anti-Syrian opposition has called for a government made up of people not running in the election, fearing a pro-Syrian government would manipulate results. But after Syria announced the withdrawal on Saturday under immense international and Lebanese opposition pressure, political sources expected Lahoud to name a close ally.

At Tuesday’s protest, Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah urged the Lebanese opposition to join a national unity government and reject a UN demand for the Syrians to leave and his own militia to disarm.

Berri also called for a unity government on Tuesday.

Witnesses said army trucks carrying troops and rocket launchers and others towing artillery guns left several positions east of Beirut on Tuesday and yesterday and some crossed the border into Syria.

Syria forces also pulled out from positions in northern Lebanon.