Before Aoun’s ‘tsunami,’ a wilderness of suspicions
By Michael Young
Daily Star staff
Thursday, May 05, 2005
So Michel Aoun returns this weekend, promising a tsunami, as he recently put it. It was typical that he failed to see, in the shadow of the East Asian killer wave, the inelegance of those words. The general surfs in on a swell of ambition, the kind that reportedly makes him believe he can cut a deal with President Emile Lahoud, to better dispose of him once Aoun is inside the walls.
Events in the past days have been confusing, even by the tortuous standards of Lebanese political life. No one has come out looking good. What is going on? Depending on which side you hear, fragments of narratives are emerging. For a confederacy of Christian former Syrian allies, at the top of which stands Lahoud, but also Deputy Parliament Speaker Michel Murr, his son Elias, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, and others, the controversial agreement last week that the election law of 2000 would govern the forthcoming elections at the end of May was a case of Christians being stabbed in the back. They underline, probably with some merit, that the deal came following an alliance between Walid Jumblatt, Saadeddine Hariri, Amal and Hizbullah.
The court also decided to delay a ruling in a 2003 case against Aoun, who is due to return to Beirut on Saturday, over comments that were deemed to have damaged Lebanon’s relations with Syria.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has designated a cardinal to stand in for him at a beatification ceremony later this month in a shift from his predecessor who declared more “blesseds” and saints than all his predecessors over the past 500 years combined.
Court Clears Anti-Syrian Lebanese Official – Last Update
Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati prepares for May elections, central bank issues CDs Locals cheered as the last Syrian soldiers rolled out of Lebanon after 29 years of occupation four days early on April 26. However, local business leaders still reeled from the events of the past three months, which drained employers of cheap Syrian labor, as expats returned with the military and tourism revenues plunged. The Lebanese Parliament made a strong effort towards building up legitimacy as quickly as Syria tore down its last outposts and burned its paperwork. President Emile Lahoud appointed business tycoon Najib Mikati prime minister-designate with the mandate of quickly organizing parliamentary elections. The interim government also raised $1.64 billion through ten-year Central Bank dollar certificates of deposits, while increasing rates on deposits on Lebanese pounds to discourage dollarization.
Mount Lebanon. The Shihab Emirs succeeded the Maans and in 1697 Emir Bashir Shihab I, nephew of Emir Ahmad Maan, came to power. After his death in 1706 he was succeeded by Emir Haydar who was deposed by the Yemenite originated families in Mount Lebanon after their rebellion against his rule appointing Emir Youssef Alam el Din as new ruler. As a result he fled to Azraeel cave in Hermel , hiding from the rebellions and sent his family members to the Khazen Cheikhs who hided them in their villages in Keserwan taking care of their needs , protecting them and sending him arms and ammunition and in addition, giving him important information and advices .
