Hezbollah seeks posts in Lebanons cabinet

Hezbollah seeks posts in Lebanons cabinet
7/4/2005 1:00:00 PM GMT

The Shiite resistance group Hezbollah said Monday it was seeking cabinet
posts for the first time in the new Lebanese government, in a move likely to
complicate UN demands for its disarmament.

The announcement came in the wake of the collapse of prime minister
designate Fuad Siniora's efforts to bring in the party of former general
Michel Aoun to a new coalition.

"It has become our right to participate directly and not just through our
allies, in the decision-making process," said Mohammed Raad, head of
Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, which holds 14 of the legislature's 128
seats.

Fellow Hezbollah MP Mohammed Fneish said the movement was seeking "two
cabinet posts".

Hezbollah competed for last month's elections in alliance with rival Shiia
faction Amal on a single-issue ticket opposing disarmament of its military
wing in compliance with Resolution 1559 passed by the UN Security Council
last September.

The Future Movement of the prime minister designate -- led by Saad Hariri, a
Sunni Muslim -- formed some electoral deals with Hezbollah and spoke out
during the campaign against disarming the resistance.

Hezbollah's push to join the government came after Siniora abandoned efforts
to woo Aoun, whose Free Patriotic Movement was the only major faction to
advocate compliance with Resolution 1559, albeit through negotiations with
the group.

"It is impossible to respond to the demands of Michel Aoun concerning the
ministries that his movement would like to have," said Siniora, who has the
task of forming the first government since the pullout of Syrian troops from
Lebanon in late April.

Aoun's movement had insisted it be given the justice portfolio but Hariri
rejected the call, saying his party needed to control the ministry amid the
continuing inquiry into the February 14 murder of his father, the former
prime minister and tycoon Rafiq Hariri.

This prompted Aoun to tell Hariri that his bloc of 21 MPs, which swept the
third round of Lebanon's elections for central areas, would not be taking
part in the government.

Siniora has made clear that another priority for the government is to
uncover the truth about the assassination of Hariri and subsequent killings
of an anti-Syrian journalist and a veteran communist politician.

http://islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=8774

------------------------------------------------

Remembering Sabra and Shatila

http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/archives/the_clipboard/001007.php



.

Relevant Pages