One can easily imagine the debate in the State Dept. and the White House. The Bushies have extolled the "Cedar revolution" and done their best to claim that the developments in Lebanon are the fruit of the president's promotion of democracy. In fairness, a margin of credit does go to the U.S. for fostering a mood, although the reaction to Hariri's assassination has far deeper oppositional roots than the tenure of the Bush adminstration.
The immediate question for policymakers was: we have celebrated democracy in Lebanon, so what do we do about the inclusion of a minister from Hizballah? The answer is to say that the U.S. will deal with the Lebanese government but not with the minister in question.
The person chosen, Muhammad Fneish, is well-regarded as a member of the domestically-focused wing of Hizballah. He has been in parliament since 1992, and he is well-regarded by many non-Shi'is. When the Qornet Shehwan group was conducting an important, but little publicized dialogue with Hizballah a few years ago, he was one of the key participants. In short, the party could not have chosen a better member to break the ice of ministerial service.
"After three weeks of political squabbling over key posts Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora formed the new government which excludes Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun but includes for the first time a senior member of Hizbullah. The inclusion of Hizbullah drew an immediate rebuke from the U.S. officials, who insisted Washington will not work with any Hizbullah ministers.
"A U.S. State Department spokesperson said: "To the extent that there are members of Hizbullah, active members of a foreign terrorist organization that are present in the government, our ability to deal with those individuals is circumscribed by law."
"But as expected, the spokesperson added Hizbullah's participation in the new Cabinet would not be an impediment to dealing with the entire Lebanese government."
March 2005 interview with Fneish.
1 comment:
Super work performed.
Post a Comment