Civil Services Times

In a major political development, President Michel Sleiman has appointed the 55-year-old billionaire and Hezbollah-backed Sunni Najib Azmi Mikati as Lebanon’s Prime Minister. He has succeeded Prime Minister Saad al- Hariri. Under Lebanon’s power-

sharing system, the post of Prime Minister is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, the presidential post for a Maronite Christian, while the Speaker of Parliament goes to a Shia Muslim. This has given the Shiite militant group increased leverage in the deeply divided country to the anger of many Sunnis.

It has to be mentioned that the 14 months-old Lebanese national unity government fell on January 12, 2011 after Shia militant group Hezbollah and its allies -the March 8 Alliance - withdrew their Ministers from the Cabinet over the disputed U.N.- backed probe into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who is also the father of Saad al-Hariri. Hariri formed the current national unity government in November 2009 after his bloc narrowly defeated the Hezbollah-led opposition in elections.

But it has struggled to function, and in the past two months it has met only for a few minutes because of the dispute over the tribunal, with Hezbollah denouncing the court as a conspiracy by the U.S. and Israel and urging the prime minister to reject any of its findings. But Hariri has refused to break cooperation with the Netherlands-based tribunal.

Implications and analysis:

1. Mikati is regarded as extremely close friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad and also enjoys close ties with U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.
2. His appointment has angered Sunnis who see it as a bid by the Iran- and Syria-backed Hezbollah to undermine outgoing premier Saad Hariri and impose its will in Lebanon.
3. The United States, which continues to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, may feel that their position has suffered a jolt and in future the bilateral ties may be adversely affected. It is to be noted that the ascendancy of Hezbollah is a setback to the United States, which has provided Lebanon with $720 million in military aid since 2006 and has tried in vain to move the country firmly into a Western sphere and end the influence of Iran and Syria.
4. The possibility of peace process in Western Asia may be affected as Hezbollah, a group known as much for its ties to Shiite Iran as for its hostility to Israel. Hezbollah was formed in 1982 with Iranian backing to fight Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.