November 22, 2008
Lebanon PM quits - again
Karami resigns for the second time in six weeks after failing to form cabinet, likely stalling May elections
BEIRUT, Lebanon - It's the latest act in Lebanon's political theater of the absurd.
Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned yesterday - for the second time in six weeks. This time, he was forced out not by popular protest but because he couldn't form a cabinet.
"The responsibility of forming a government was a ball of fire, and I was willing to carry it," Karami told reporters. "But we have once again reached a dead end."
The resignation creates a new political vacuum in Lebanon and makes it highly unlikely that the country will be able to hold elections by May 31, when the current parliament's term expires. The Bush administration has repeatedly warned the Lebanese and Syrian governments that elections must not be delayed.
Opposition leaders quickly blamed Karami and Syria's other allies in the Lebanese government of orchestrating the resignation to stall elections, which the anti-Syrian parties are expected to win. "It is now clear that there was a prior decision to delay the elections and extend the mandate of the current parliament," said Elias Atallah, an opposition legislator.
Other opposition leaders warned that a delay in elections could lead to a new round of mass protests. "We must have elections. If we don't, we're moving to the unknown," Druze leader Walid Jumblatt told reporters. "People may decide to return to the streets."
Because of the likely voting delay, Karami's resignation yesterday was a serious blow to the opposition. In contrast, when he stepped down in February, it was a major opposition victory, having been prompted by mass protests that followed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination on Feb. 14. Karami was reappointed as premier 10 days after that initial resignation and charged with forming a new cabinet.
Since then, Karami had been trying to create a national unity government, but the opposition has refused to join a government led by any Syrian ally. The opposition, which controls 43 seats in the 128-member parliament, did not nominate its own candidate for prime minister.
Since Syria announced that it would withdraw all of its 14,000 troops from Lebanon by the end of April, the Lebanese opposition has shown signs of splintering because it no longer has a unifying issue. The opposition has found it much harder to mobilize average Lebanese to protest the delays in forming a government and holding elections.
Over the past two weeks, Karami gave up on including the opposition in his cabinet. But he faced bickering among pro-Syrian factions over different cabinet posts. Opposition leaders say this infighting was a ploy to delay the balloting.
Lebanese law requires that elections be called at least one month before parliament's term expires. For the vote to be held on time, a new cabinet must be in place and must draft an electoral law by April 30, and that is very unlikely to happen. The Lebanese president and parliament are expected to start discussions tomorrow on appointing a new premier.
Karami resigned on the 30th anniversary of the start of Lebanon's 15-year civil war on April 13, 1975. Nearly 150,000 people were killed in the fighting.
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