A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Lebanon: Walid Bey Explains it All

The collapse of the Lebanese government may have been inevitable once the Syrian-Saudi mediation was declared a failure, and it returns the country to the paralysis it endured in 2006-2007, which led to the Doha Agreement and the creation of a unity Cabinet in which the "opposition" (in quotes since they joined the Cabinet) had a "blocking third" that could block legislsation or, in this case, bring down the government. Once Hizbullah and Amal and their Christian allies quit, only one more resignation was needed to collapse the government, and a Presidential appointee obliged. Qifa Nabki gives his usual clear backgrounder.

But the always entertaining and unpredictable Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who met today with the Maronite Patriarch at the Patriarchate, told reporters that "Yesterday, the dark forces intervened and torpedoed the Saudi-Syrian initiative," Some reports are translating it as "occult forces."

I guess he's saying the devil made them do it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You said: "Once Hizbullah and Amal quit, only one more resignation was needed to collapse the government"

It's wrong.

Only five ministers were from hizbullah and amal.

The others are from 2 christian parties:

Gibran Bassil, Fadi Abboud, Charbel Nahas and Ibrahim Déhdéian are from Michel Aoun party.

Youssef Saade is from Sleiman Frangie party.

Michael Collins Dunn said...

Quite right; I was writing too fast. Corrected now.