Hezbollah given veto pwer in Lebanon govt

Lebanon’s feuding factions reached a breakthrough deal today that ends the country’s long political stalemate, but also gives the militant Hezbollah group and allies the key power they sought.

The deal, reached with the help of Arab mediators, gives Hezbollah a veto over any decision made by the US and Western-backed government.

The agreement was immediately praised by Iran and Syria, which back Hezbollah but it seems certain to accelerate fears in the West over Hezbollah’s new power.

The Bush administration tried to put the most positive spin on a deal.

“It’s a necessary and positive step,” the top US diplomat for the Middle East, David Welch, said at a State Department briefing. “It’s not for us to decide how Lebanon does this.”

A leader of the Western-backed government, Saad Hariri, seemed to acknowledge his side had largely caved in, in the talks – spurred by a sharp outbreak of violence earlier this month after 18 months of stalemate.

“I know that the wounds are deep and my injury is deep, but we only have each other to build Lebanon,” he said after the deal was announced in Qatar.

The election of a compromise president – a general in Lebanon’s mostly powerless but neutral army – was expected for Sunday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported.

The Hezbollah-led opposition won both its demands with the deal: veto power in a new national unity government, and an electoral law that divides up Lebanon into smaller-sized districts, allowing for better representation of the country’s various sects.

A few bursts of celebratory gunfire broke out in Beirut after the announcement. Lebanese television stations, which broadcast the Qatar ceremony live, showed Lebanese politicians and their Arab hosts congratulating and hugging one another.

The mood in Beirut’s streets was jubilant, with Lebanese, tired of the protracted deadlock, greeting each other with “Mabrouk” or “Congratulations” in Arabic.

The talks in Qatar and the deal were a dramatic cap to Lebanon’s worst internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war – a series of violent street clashes between pro-government groups and the opposition raging in Beirut and elsewhere earlier this month. At least 67 people died.

As Lebanon came close to an all-out war, Arab League mediators intervened and got the sides to agree to hold negotiations in Qatar on resolving the crisis that has paralysed the country.

But the resulting deal was a major victory for Hezbollah.

In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the Lebanese deal was an “example of regional integration for achieving stability and tranquillity.”

Syria also promptly endorsed the deal, with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem saying “Lebanon’s security and stability are important and vital to Syria’s security and stability.”

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was “personally very happy” about the Doha agreement and said it was now “up to all the Lebanese to use this accord to build the basis for national reconciliation.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the Lebanese should draw lessons from what happened and called on them to reject violence. He also called on Arab states to help support Lebanese forces, which kept a neutral role during the latest clashes.

Hezbollah’s chief negotiator, Mohammed Raad, downplayed Hezbollah’s win, saying “neither side got all it demanded, but (the agreement) is a good balance between all parties’ demands.”

Under the agreement – reached at dawn today and signed by both Lebanese factions shortly before the Doha ceremony – the Syrian-backed opposition would get 11 seats in the Cabinet, while 16 seats would go to the US and Western-backed parliament majority and the remaining three would be distributed by the elected president. Previously, the opposition held six seats in the Cabinet.

The agreement states that the factions “pledged to refrain” from taking up weapons to resolve disputes and that the “use of arms or violence is forbidden to settle political differences under any circumstances.”

The government had sought a concession in Doha that Hezbollah would not again turn its guns on fellow Lebanese as in fighting earlier this month, but the broad clause referring to all Lebanese armed groups was apparently as much as it achieved.

Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down in November, and rival factions have been unable to resolve their differences over a future government.

Both sides have agreed on General Michel Suleiman, the army chief, as a consensus candidate. But parliament had been unable to muster a quorum to meet because of disagreement on other remaining issues – including the formation of the national unity government and electoral law.