Lebanon in Deeper Political Turmoil (Government‪)‬

Lebanon's months-long political crisis over a UN-backed court's indictment into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri took a dangerous twist this week with the collapse of the country's national unity Cabinet. A precedent in Lebanon's politically turbulent history, the collapse of the Cabinet under pressure from the powerful Shiite Hizbullah group and its allies has thrown Lebanon into deeper political turmoil, raising questions about whether the country's feuding parties would be able to agree on a new government soon to face a protracted political crisis. Given the deep-rooted political differences between the Hizbullah-led opposition bloc, as the Syrian-backed March 8 alliance is known, and the rival pro-Western ruling March 14 coalition, in addition to the failure of the Saudi-Syrian efforts to resolve the Lebanese crisis, it is highly unlikely that Lebanon can have a new government soon. It took Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri nearly five months to form his current Cabinet on November 9, 2009 following parliamentary elections in which he emerged as the majority leader. "Lebanon has entered starting yesterday (January 12) a new phase that will be open to a long-term and deep political and Cabinet crisis following the failure of Syrian-Saudi efforts to achieve results," said the leftist newspaper AS SAFIR, which is close to Hizbullah and Syria, on January 13. AN NAHAR's columnist Ali Hamadeh wrote in his column on January 13: "Lebanon has entered a dangerous crossroads. The independence-seeking people (March 14 groups) will have nothing but to stand fast in the face of 'dark forces' here and across the border, waiting for truth and justice."