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Feud Between President and Speaker Threatens Lebanon's March 8 Alliance 12 February 4, 2018 News & Analysis Lebanon Feud between president and speaker threatens Lebanon’s March 8 alliance Sami Moubayed remained until 2005. Berri became speaker of parlia- ment in 1992, a post he still holds. Beirut He became a protege of the Syrians while Aoun spent 15 years calling new crisis is looming for their departure from Lebanon. in Beirut, threatening During his exile, Aoun accused to cripple the already Berri of autocracy, corruption and highly dysfunctional submissiveness to the Syrians. Lebanese government. When he returned to Lebanon ThisA time it isn’t between Hezbol- after Rafik Hariri’s assassination lah and its enemies in the Western- in 2005, Aoun promised to bring backed March 14 bloc but within down the political system alto- the powerful and hitherto united gether, promoting himself as an March 8 alliance. agent of reform and change. A major feud is snowballing be- Aoun and Berri set aside their tween the long-serving Speaker differences in 2006 when Aoun of Parliament Nabih Berri, 79, and reached a ground-breaking alli- President Michel Aoun, 82 — two ance with Nasrallah, cemented staunch allies of Hezbollah Secre- during that year’s summer war tary-General Hassan Nasrallah. If with Israel. He promised to protect not controlled, the conflict could and support Hezbollah’s armed have disastrous consequences for struggle and Hezbollah pledged the March 8 alliance, especially to make him president of Lebanon ahead of parliamentary elections one day — a promise it fulfilled in scheduled for May. November 2016. Berri signed off on Aoun’s presi- dency, rather unwillingly, unable to say no to Nasrallah. For ten Nasrallah is years, they worked in the same attempting to pro-Syrian camp, struggling to win an open conflict with Saad Hariri mediate the conflict and the Saudi-backed March 14 before it gets any coalition. bigger. The tension was visible, how- ever, in the two-way relationship At daggers’ end. Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun (R), Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri (2nd R) and between parliament and the presi- parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (L) attend a parade at a military academy in Fayadyeh near Beirut, dency. Aoun considers himself a last August. (Reuters) Aoun and Berri have known father figure, above all Lebanese each other for a very long time and politicians — more senior, consti- were at daggers’ end throughout tutionally and politically than Ber- giving them one-year seniority. Aoun’s influence over the judicial took to the streets the following Lebanon’s long civil war. When it ri, who writes him off as ungrate- The decree requires that they be branch. He proclaimed the consti- night, cutting off roads and setting started in 1975, Aoun was an army ful. He claims that if it weren’t for promoted in rank and payment, tution, Taif Accord and National tyres on fire. Berri instructed Shia officer who refused the break-up his support and that of the Amal meaning that by the constitution it Pact “dead” due to the handling of businessmen in the diaspora to of the armed forces along sectar- Movement, Aoun would never needs to be signed off by Finance Aoun. boycott a conference for Lebanese ian lines. A Maronite Christian, he have entered the Presidential pal- Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, a mem- expatriates in Abidjan. felt sidelined and over-muscled by ace. ber of Amal and a Berri protege. Nasrallah is attempting to me- the country’s Muslim militias, a For 11 years (2005-16), Aoun Aoun ignored the finance min- diate the conflict before it gets coalition of Sunni, Shia and Pales- was just a player in a coalition of ister, signing the decree with- Aoun considers himself any bigger. To restore equilibrium tinian groups operating under the parties that was partially headed out referring either to Berri or to a father figure, above among the prime minister, presi- command of Yasser Arafat. Berri by Berri, who said Aoun is over- Khalil. Berri was furious, argu- all Lebanese politicians dent and speakership of parlia- was commander of one of those playing his presidential role and ing that Aoun violated the 1989 — more senior, ment, one suggestion is to write groups, the all-Shia Amal Move- should not forget those who made Taif Accord, which curtails the a law calling for all three lead- ment, which he still leads today, him president, arguing that they president’s powers and gives constitutionally and ers to sign off such legislation, 40 years later. could unseat him if they should much of his authority to the cabi- politically than Berri, something Aoun furiously resists, In 1988, Aoun became prime wish. net of ministers. who writes him off as saying it would cripple his con- minister of Lebanon in clear viola- In short, Berri doesn’t take Aoun Aoun snapped back that he ungrateful. stitutional and political rights as tion of the National Pact, a gentle- very seriously as president. Big alone is the president of the re- president. men’s agreement between Leba- egos are obstructing progress, public and the former command- If not solved in the next two nese politicians that allocated the topped with a clear lack of per- er of the Lebanese Army, able to months, this will have serious presidency to the Maronites and sonal chemistry between the two promote or fire officers, without A recording of Aoun’s son-in- effects on the performance of the prime minister’s post to Sunni men, despite the fact they are having to seek the approval of law, Foreign Minister Gebran the March 8 alliance next May. Muslims. politically allied — or should be — any Lebanese politician. He sug- Bassil, addressing members of In the elections of 2009, Aoun’s Berri mobilised his Shia ahead of next May. gested that Berri take the matter his Free Patriotic Movement team won 19 seats, while Berri’s power base to fight Aoun and Aoun in January signed a de- to court (given that Justice Min- was leaked January 28. In it he lot dropped from 14 to 13. Both ejected him from Baabda Pal- cree, using powers vested in the ister Salim Jreissati is a member described Berri as a “thug.” Khalil planned to raise their share of ace, at the gunpoint of the Syr- presidency, advancing the rank of of Aoun’s party). Berri said he snapped that Bassil was a politi- seats in the next chamber, which ian Army, in October 1990. Aoun officers who had graduated from would once the judiciary becomes cal dwarf and Amal members de- might be hard if the two leaders was exiled to France, where he the military academy in 1994, independent — in reference to manded a public apology. They are not speaking to each other. Viewpoint The absurd sentencing of Lebanese analyst by military court n internationally jail in absentia for “attacking the the Lebanese Army from defama- Sentencing a journalist to jail minded romantic army.” The only reason Ghaddar is tion. Even if it were, it would be for having voiced an opinion, can always find good not in prison is because she took outrageous. Instead, it is much effectively banning her from James Snell things to say about a job in the United States about a worse: a military court used to returning to her own country, is a British journalist. Lebanon. Travel- year ago. pursue and victimise those who is more troubling. It speaks of ling types praise its The saga would be absurd were criticise Hezbollah. a society that is not confident vibrantA feel, its rich history and, it not so sinister. Ghaddar faces Ghaddar has been persistently and outward-looking but rather perhaps most of all, its cosmo- prison if she returns to her home targeted by Hezbollah-friendly afraid, spiteful and weak. It is politan sophistication. In parts country. She does so because, media outlets such as the news- these fears that make politicians of Europe, one still hears Beirut speaking at a conference in Wash- paper Al Akhbar. One justification and judges keener to prevent referred to as the “Paris of the ington four years ago, she referred for the campaign of intimidation even reasonable critics from rais- East.” to “Sunnis being clamped down ranged against her centred on the ing their voices. Leave aside the laziness of this by Hezbollah and the Lebanese fact that she appeared — without The Lebanese courts and the comparison for a moment. It still Army.” So she stands accused of endorsing him or advocating his country’s politicians should re- has some value. If nothing else, and may potentially be jailed for perspective — at the same confer- consider and recant this verdict, such rhetorical excesses demon- “defaming the Lebanese Army, ence as an Israeli foreign official. lest they share in its shame and strate a certain fondness, built harming its reputation and accus- It is not unreasonable to suggest its disgrace. Lebanon’s leaders upon an idea of Lebanon as excit- ing it of distinguishing between that this is no justification at all. and people ought not to stand for ing and modern. Lebanese citizens.” Lebanon’s society is becom- this sort of aggression against a Recent events do not disprove Ghaddar is a former editor of ing more censorious. The state writer and thinker for the crime of Lebanon must stop this idea entirely but have, in mine at NOW News and a good recently banned films including having written and thought. continuing down some ways, tarnished the roman- and fair woman. She does not “Wonder Woman” because Gal They should do so on principle, the path towards tic’s rosy image of the country.
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