Lebanon Gets a New "Unity Government"

But the Lebanese aren't dancing in the streets or splashing up billboards of thanks, as they did when President Michel Suleiman was finally elected after an 18-month crisis. Pursuant to the so-called Doha agreement that ended the crisis (it was negotiated in Qatar under the aegis of that country's diplomatically ambitions emir, the cabinet has no less than 30 members, and its seats were distributed along Lebanon's enduring sectarian rifts. The parliamentary majority--pro-Western, anti-Syrian Sunnis and Maronite Christians--got to appoint 16 seats. The parliamentary opposition--Hezbollah and Amal Party Shiites, Christian followers of Gen. Michel Aoun, who allied himself to Hezbollah in hopes of climbing Lebanon's power structure--got to name 11 ministers. And the president named three.

The opposition block took the coveted posts of foreign minister, telecommunications minister and deputy prime minister (Michel Aoun was named to that post), effectively seizing the reins of power that matter most in the country. That's no surprise. The Doha agreement also secured for the opposition veto power over any cabinet decisions, thus turning Lebanon's allegedly representative government into a government at the mercy of the minority.

The assignment of the telecommunications ministry to the opposition is key: It was a few weeks ago, you may remember, that Lebanon looked like it had reverted back to civil war when the government demanded that Hezbollah dismantle an unauthorized communications and video-spying network around Beirut's southern suburbs, where the International airport is located. Hezbollah not only ignored the government. It invaded West Beirut in a show of force that demolished and demoralized Sunni militants in its way.

That sent the government a blunt message: Hezbollah is the power to be reckoned with in Lebanon. And now the Shiite party can do with telecommunications what it wants. The man appointed minister of telecommunications, Jebran Bassil, is a Maronite Christian and the son-in-law of Michel Aoun. His credentials in telecommunications are nil. He's an engineer by training and made his money in real estate and construction. But that makes the very point Lebanon's Daily Star made in its editorial summing up the appointments. It underscores "the essential irrelevance of who gets what post in a system that remains outside the rule of law."

The Lebanese Political Journal has an excellent, often witty run-down of the new appointments.