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Meet the Lebanese Press: The Arabs to the rescue?

by via the Electronic Intifada
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 :Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa has been spending more time in Lebanon recently than any other Arab country outside his home base of Egypt. But the time he spends seems to be inversely proportional to number of issues he resolves. His latest trip this week was expected to bring the Lebanese factions to implement the latest Arab initiative launched in Cairo.
Lip-service endorsements were all he got. The Lebanese all seem to agree on who the next president is, Army Chief Michel Suleiman. Yet a resolution to the crisis remains elusive. The reason is that the crisis is a much more fundamental one than the person of the president. And true to the tradition of Lebanese politics, the crisis continues to reflect the political conflicts on a domestic, regional and international level.

Regionally, the lack of a strong uncontested power among the Arab states has meant no one country (Syria on one side and Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the other) is able to either enforce its own solution or completely undermine the demands of the other Arab states. A weakened American president and a relative setback in implementing US aims in the region has also meant that despite an ability to undermine any resolution not in line with US interests, imposing a US agenda in Lebanon has failed so far.

Domestically, the sectarian jockeying for power continues to block any externally imposed settlement that does not cater to the main sectarian parties. The role of Christians and that of Michel Aoun continues to be pivotal. Their alliance with Hizballah has meant that isolating the resistance movement against Israel comes out as also an attempt to undermine the Christians and not simply a fight against "Islamic fundamentalism," the latter a scenario favored by the US and its allies.

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