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Lebanon’s Aoun buries hatchet with jailed Geagea
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Lebanon’s Aoun buries hatchet with jailed Geagea


BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s opposition leader Michel Aoun visited a fellow-Maronite Christian civil war foe in his prison cell near Beirut on Wednesday, drawing a line under a bloody rift that tore their community apart 15 years ago.


“This visit today … comes to turn a page of the past that now belongs to history and to look to the future,” the retired general told reporters after his one-hour meeting with former militia chief Samir Geagea in a cell at the Defense Ministry.


Aoun returned to Lebanon on May 7 after 14 years of an exile that began after Syrian troops defeated his forces in 1990.


Earlier that year, Aoun’s men had battled Geagea’s Lebanese Forces militia for four months. Hundreds of people were killed in the conflict, which devastated parts of a Christian enclave.

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Christian opposition to run in elections despite ‘unfair law’
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Christian opposition to run in elections despite ‘unfair law’


By Majdoline Hatoum


BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Christian opposition said it will contest the country’s elections despite their insistence that the election process discriminates against Christians.


The opposition finally quelled speculation that it would boycott this month’s polls following a meeting of its Qornet Shehwan Gathering under the aegis of Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir.


Sfeir is one of the most vocal critics of the country’s election law, which was devised in 2000 when Syrian hegemony was at its most pervasive in Lebanon.


Following the meeting, opposition MP Butros Harb said: “We will deal with the 2000 electoral law as a status-quo, which we refuse, but will go through elections according to the law in order to protect people’s rights.”

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Anti-Syria general feels Lebanese political chill
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Anti-Syria general feels Lebanese political chill


By Lin Noueihed


BEIRUT (Reuters) – Just days after returning from exile to a hero’s welcome, the Maronite Christian general who sees himself as Lebanon’s savior from Syrian tutelage has already collided with his country’s political realities. The countdown has begun to Lebanon’s first general election without direct Syrian influence for 33 years, but Michel Aoun and his followers have been excluded from the two anti-Syrian opposition tickets announced so far.


A month ago, when Aoun was nearing the end of a 14-year exile in Paris, he said he expected more than 40 members of his Free Patriotic Movement to stand. That looks unlikely now.


The tens of thousands of youthful, orange-clad supporters who welcomed Aoun in Beirut on May 7 hoped the uncompromising soldier’s return would mark a fresh start for Lebanon.


But bitterness at the cold shoulder he has received from other anti-Syrian politicians now prevails.

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The invisible occupation of Lebanon
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The invisible occupation of Lebanon


By Ghassan Rubeiz


Syrian’s withdrawal from Lebanon has increased freedom there, but Lebanon still faces internal threats: self-serving political leaders, a strange power-sharing formula that divides up power among religious sects, and a scary national debt.


Sectarian politics is the most fundamental structural problem in Lebanon.  Political representation and government positions are apportioned to 17 sects, in three religious communities: Christian, Muslim and Druze. The exuberant energy and phenomenal organization of popular demonstrations after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Harari brought people across the religious divides to the street to demand Syrian withdrawal and democratic reforms.


Three months after the demonstrations, this energy may be starting to dissipate in the face of the challenges of nation building — including national elections.

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Ahead of elections, unholy alliances in Lebanon
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OPINION


Ahead of elections, unholy alliances in Lebanon


By Sami Moubayed , Political analyst


The Lebanese opposition wrongly believed that the return of General Michel Aoun to Lebanon on May 7, three weeks before parliamentary elections, would serve their political interests and result in a new parliament overwhelmingly opposed to President Emile Lahoud.


Now that the Syrians are out, the opposition believed, Lebanon’s new parliament would eject Lahoud from office.


The opposition wanted to use Aoun to achieve this purpose, then get rid of him, because he returns to Lebanon with bitter scores to settle with everyone who kept him in exile for 15 years.

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Lebanon’s liberation was brought about by many
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Lebanon’s liberation was brought about by many


In a statement made following a visit this week with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir in Bkirki, U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman pointed to two main factors as having led to the withdrawal of Syria’s military and intelligence personnel from Lebanon.


The ambassador cited the first factor as international determination as expressed in UN Security Council Resolution 1559, and said the second was the determination of a united Lebanese, who turned out en masse for a huge March 14 demonstration exactly a month after the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.


Feltman’s statement comes on the heels of an informal debate through the media between Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, freshly returned from exile in Paris, and Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt over the liberation of Lebanon from Syrian hegemony.

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Mikati: ‘Main challenge’ is preserving trust in Lebanon
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Mikati: ‘Main challenge’ is preserving trust in Lebanon


Premier seeks to improve ties with private sector


By Karine Raad


BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday “the main challenge (for the current government) is to find the means to preserve trust in Lebanon” and improve ties with the private sector.


During a meeting with various ministers and prominent members of the economic, commercial and banking sectors, Mikati highlighted the importance of coordination between the government and the private sector to help rejuvenate the economy, particularly in the wake of former Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination.


Mikati said several goals need to be achieved despite the Cabinet’s short-term status.

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Europe invites Lebanon to join parliamentary assembly
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Europe invites Lebanon to join parliamentary assembly


Politicians were ‘surprisingly welcoming’


By Nada Bakri


BEIRUT: A European parliamentary delegation has invited Lebanon to join the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA), a body with a mandate to bolster the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.


The delegation represents the EPP-ED group, the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats in the European Parliament and was headed by Edward McMillan Scott, the vice president of European Parliament.

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Lebanon’s Tourism Ministry woos Arab travelers
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Lebanon’s Tourism Ministry woos Arab travelers


Upcoming television campaign seeks to reassure Gulf tourists


By Will Rasmussen


BEIRUT: Lebanon is a place where diverse religious communities mingle in harmony, enjoying long, leisurely summer evenings at open-air restaurants along charming cobbled boulevards.


That, at least, is the Tourism Ministry’s message to the Gulf, to be aired in 30-second television advertisements in a new promotional campaign beginning next week.


Long focused on luring Europeans to Lebanon’s beaches and mountains, the Tourism Ministry is now looking eastward, worried that news of bombings and civil strife might deter deep-pocketed Gulf Arabs from visiting Lebanon this summer.

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