BEIRUT (AFP) – Shiite militant group Hezbollah said it was seeking cabinet posts for the first time in the new Lebanese government, in a move likely to complicate UN demands for its disarmament. The announcement followed the collapse of prime minister designate Fuad Siniora’s efforts to bring in the party of firebrand Christian former general Michel Aoun to a new coalition.”It has become our right to participate directly and not just through our allies, in the decision-making process,” said Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, which holds 14 of the legislature’s 128 seats.Fellow Hezbollah MP Mohammed Fneish said the movement, which was involved in deadly clashes with Israeli troops in a disputed border zone just last week, was seeking “two cabinet posts”.Hezbollah competed for last month’s elections in alliance with rival Shiite faction Amal on a single-issue ticket opposing disarmament of its military wing in compliance with Resolution 1559 passed by the UN Security Council last September.The Future Movement of the prime minister designate — led by Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim — formed some electoral deals with Hezbollah and spoke out during the campaign against disarming the “resistance”.Hezbollah’s push to join the government came after Siniora abandoned efforts to woo Aoun, whose Free Patriotic Movement was the only major faction to advocate compliance with Resolution 1559, albeit through negotiations with the militant group.
“It is impossible to respond to the demands of Michel Aoun concerning the ministries that his movement would like to have,” said Siniora, who is tasked with forming the first government since the pullout of Syrian troops from Lebanon in late April.
Aoun’s movement had insisted it be given the justice portfolio but Hariri rejected the call, saying his party needed to control the ministry amid the continuing inquiry into the February 14 murder of his father, the former prime minister and tycoon Rafiq Hariri.
This prompted Aoun to tell Hariri that his bloc of 21 MPs, which swept the third round of Lebanon’s elections for central areas, would not be taking part in the government.
Former finance minister Siniora was named Thursday to head the first government of the post-
‘ name=c3> Syria era and pledged to try to reunite the country and embark on across-the-board reforms.
Pro-Damascus President Emile Lahoud agreed to designate 62-year-old Siniora, a close ally of the late Rafiq Hariri, after all but two MPs nominated him for the prime minister’s post.
Siniora has made clear that another priority for the government is to uncover the truth about the assassination of Hariri and subsequent killings of an anti-Syrian journalist and a veteran communist politician.
Former general security chief Jamil Sayyed, who stood down from his post amid opposition allegations of complicity in Hariri’s killing, expressed doubt in comments published Monday that the perpetrator of the huge bomb blast on the Beirut seafront would ever be found.
“According to international exports, in an explosion as powerful as this one no trace of the bomber is left if it’s a suicide attack and DNA analysis is impossible,” Sayyed told the Saudi-owned London daily Al-Hayat.
A UN team began an inquiry into the bombing last month after a fact-finding mission found serious flaws in Lebanon’s own.
It has already identified the likely vehicle used to carry the expolosives and has questioned senior officials in post at the time.
