This is Lebanon’s Gordian knot, and as the country approaches its 101st birthday, there are fears that that dilemma could cost this tiny Mediterranean state everything.
Hariri’s resignation was the last thing the country needed, and yet it was both inevitable and unexpected.
Time had shown that he was incapable of breaking a stalemate with his arch-rival President Michel Aoun, and unable to regain visible support from his traditional, and vital, regional patrons Saudi Arabia after his mysterious trip there and alleged November 2017 detention — which he denies — in Riyadh. Moreover, there was no evidence that he was working on an economic rescue plan that a new government would enact to pull the country out of its financial wreckage.
But the move was also surprising and devastating. Neither the political elite, nor the burgeoning nonsectarian opposition, nor the international community have coalesced around an alternative to Hariri. Additionally, the international community seemed to throw their weight behind his government formation process in recent weeks, repeatedly warning of the prospect of imminent state collapse.
The European Union sent multiple delegations to Lebanon, urging the ruling elite to resolve the dispute between Aoun and Hariri. Eventually the EU threatened to impose sanctions on leading officials, and has said that a legal framework for meting out those penalties would materialize by the end of July.
Just hours before the resignation announcement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian sent a message to Aoun through their Beirut embassies urging him to expedite the formation of a government. It was a glaring example of the international community’s rapidly diminishing influence in Lebanon.
According to Aoun, Hariri refused to compromise on his line-up. Hariri vehemently denies this. While the truth was somewhere in between, the result was an apparently Pyrrhic victory for Aoun and proof of the paralysis of Lebanon’s political system.
Hence, Hariri’s resignation immediately pushed the sinking Lebanese lira further into the abyss — the local currency saw its biggest 24-hour decline since the start of the crisis, and now has lost over 95% of its pre-crisis 2019 value. Lebanon’s streets, already roiling with anger over a rapidly growing economic crisis and infrastructural decay, became even more restive. Hundreds of Hariri supporters forced the closure of major highways on Thursday night. Molotov cocktails, rocks and fireworks were directed at security forces.
The international community issued strongly worded statements against a ruling elite that consisted of some politicians they once considered allies.
France’s foreign ministry accused the country’s leaders of “deliberately” keeping the political process frozen while Lebanon “sinks into unprecedented economic and social crisis.”
Blinken also tweeted that the US was “disappointed with developments in Lebanon and disheartened that political leaders have squandered the last nine months.”
During a two-hour televised interview shortly after his resignation, Hariri tried to dispel the notion that his attempts to form a government were halfhearted, accusing Aoun of obstructing the process by trying to achieve veto power through the cabinet formation.
His interviewer, Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed TV’s chief of news and politics Mariam al-Bassam, repeatedly scoffed at him, berating him for jumping ship and for allowing the Lebanese people “to bear the brunt” of his decision. All the while she recounted a litany of his political and financial flops and questioned his ability to head a rescue government in the first place.
Growing despair
At a European visa center just hours before Hariri’s expected announcement, a security guard said to one of the applicants: “Listen, if the politicians can’t work it out today, could you take me with you?”
“I want war because we’re dying anyway,” said one aid worker on the northern outskirts of Beirut — he asked not to be named for fear of compromising his profession.
Another aid worker nearby says he wishes the country would be occupied again, “by whoever, it doesn’t matter.” Pressed for further explanation, it was apparent that the sentiment, which carried echoes of some of the darkest chapters of Lebanon’s history, was driven by desperation rather than rational thought.
But it remains true that people in Lebanon are fully aware of their Gordian Knot. And they are in urgent need of a Lebanese Alexander to take a bold and decisive move to break it.
Source : Nbcnewyork