Lebanon’s Government Wins Parliamentary Confidence Vote
July 07, 2011, 10:34 AM EDTBy Massoud A. Derhally
(Updates with analyst’s comment in fifth, 13th paragraphs.)
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Lebanon’s new government under billionaire Najib Mikati won the parliamentary vote of confidence it needs to start work.
A total of 68 lawmakers in the 128-seat parliament voted today for the Cabinet, which is dominated by ministers from the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement and its allies. Supporters of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who didn’t attend, walked out of the chamber in Beirut as voting began. Lawmakers voted after three days of debate on the 30-seat Cabinet’s policy document.
The ministers were criticized by lawmakers allied with Hariri, whose government collapsed in January amid a dispute with Hezbollah over an inquiry by a United Nations tribunal into the 2005 killing of his father, Rafiq Hariri. The politicians said in the debate that the new Cabinet is “against the international community,” and that the policy brief is a “coup against democracy” that “threatens, intimidates and warns against dealing with international justice.”
Hezbollah pressed Hariri before the fall of his government to disavow Lebanese cooperation with the UN tribunal. The group rejects the court, saying it is unconstitutional, biased and part of a U.S.-Israeli plot to target Hezbollah and Syria, which supports it. Hezbollah wanted Hariri to end Lebanon’s financing of 49 percent of the tribunal’s costs. The court issued warrants on June 30 for members of the group, prompting Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to pledge that it won’t hand the suspects over.
‘Pretty Implausible’
“I wouldn’t expect the government to actively pursue these arrest warrants, as it would severely undermine the political stability of the country if they did,” Edward Bell, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, said after the confidence vote. “The chances of these four men actually being found or arrested is pretty implausible as well.”
The Cabinet referred to the UN inquiry into Hariri’s killing in its policy document, saying: “Out of respect for international resolutions, the government affirms its commitment for the truth to be revealed” and will “follow the progress of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was established in principle to achieve truth and justice, far away from any politicization or revenge, and without any negative impact on Lebanon’s stability, unity and civil peace.”
Future Movement
Hariri’s Future Movement, some members of which have characterized Mikati’s coming to power as a betrayal, said July 3 that the new Cabinet and “all who sit on its table, is a government which turns against the Lebanese people who triumphed for justice and freedom.” The movement said it will continue to support the UN tribunal “to achieve justice, preserve the Lebanese people’s dignity and rights,” and vowed to say “No to Hezbollah’s government, yes to freedom and justice. Yes to coexistence, democracy and the Constitution.”
Mikati’s government, in the policy statement, said it “adheres to the right of Lebanon’s people, army and resistance to liberate or retrieve the Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shouba Hills and the Lebanese part of Ghajar Village, as well as to defend Lebanon by all available legal means,” referring to areas still considered to be occupied by Israel and that Hezbollah says justify its possession of arms.
The wording on Hezbollah’s weapons retains a policy of the governments formed in 2009, 2008 and 2005.
The wrangling over Lebanon’s involvement in the tribunal threatens a return to sectarian violence in a country that emerged from a 15-year civil war in 1990. Hariri was killed along with 22 others by a roadside bomb in Beirut. The country has since witnessed at least seven political assassinations, a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and civil unrest three years ago in which about 80 people died.
Nasrallah’s Warning
Nasrallah said Nov. 11 that he won’t allow Hezbollah members to be detained and will “cut the hand” of anyone who attempts to do so. He has also called on Lebanese officials and citizens not to cooperate with the UN inquiry. The tribunal’s investigators were attacked at a clinic in a southern suburb of Beirut in October while collecting information.
While Mikati said Lebanon will adhere to its international obligations, it remains unclear how he will succeed in mollifying his Cabinet’s Hezbollah allies after Hariri, who headed a national unity government, failed to do so.
“The political section of the ministerial statement is what you would expect from a Cabinet that has some influence from Hezbollah,” Bell said. “The economic side of the policy statement was uninspiring, given that you had a lot of broad statements without any clear timeframes or real objectives that they want to meet.”
Public Debt
In addition to addressing security and political concerns stemming from tension over the tribunal, the new government will need to reduce public debt, which reached $52.6 billion at the end of last year, or about 137 percent of gross domestic product. The figure has been swollen by reconstruction costs after the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990 and the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
The government pledged to cut spending, increase revenue, reduce the national debt and introduce “structural reforms in the tax system.”
Previous governments had aimed to reduce debt by raising about $7 billion from the sale of two mobile-phone network licenses. Those plans were put on hold because of an 18-month political crisis that abated in 2008 and delayed further by the global credit crisis, elections in 2009 and political disputes.
The restructuring of Electricite du Liban, the state-run power company that provides more than 90 percent of Lebanon’s electricity has also been put on hold for many years. The company’s rising deficit continues to sap state finances through as much as $1.5 billion a year in government subsidies.
--Editors: Heather Langan, Karl Maier, Louis Meixler.
To contact the reporter on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut, Lebanon, at mderhally@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.
