Syria Backs Lebanon’s Muslim Cabinet

Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, rejected the country’s three-day-old Christian military government Sunday in favor of a rival government declared by its Muslim allies.

The crisis was threatening to formally split the tiny Mediterranean nation along sectarian lines and rekindle the bloody 13-year civil war.

“Alas, this appears to be it,” lamented Beirut’s Muslim-controlled Voice of the Nation radio station. “Unless a new president is quickly elected, and this seems to need a miracle, Lebanon is irrevocably partitioned.”

In Damascus, Syria’s Al Thawra daily, which speaks for President Hafez Assad’s government, branded the formation of the Lebanese Christian Cabinet of Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun a “military coup d’etat against legitimacy.”

“This government not only constitutes a coup against legitimate state institutions and laws, but it is also a coup against the historic chance to elect a new president and pave the way for national reconciliation and salvation,” the paper said in an editorial.

Syria backs the five-member Cabinet of Sunni Muslim Premier Salim Hoss, which includes the two key Muslim militia chieftains, Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt and Shia leader Nabih Berri.

Syrian Troops

The Syrians maintain an estimated 40,000 troops in north and east Lebanon as well as in Muslim areas of Beirut. With their Druze and Shia allies, they control 70% of the country of 4 million people.

The governmental deadlock stems from Parliament’s failure to elect a successor to President Amin Gemayel before his six-year term expired at midnight Thursday.

Aoun, a Maronite Christian who is commander of the army, was named premier by Gemayel minutes before his term ended.

Hoss’ Cabinet is all that remains of a national government under Gemayel, a Maronite. But that administration, fractured along sectarian lines, rarely even consulted with him.

The Muslim leaders had threatened to declare a breakaway state in territory controlled by their militias if Gemayel handed over power to a Christian-led Cabinet.

Under an unwritten covenant, no single religious group can dominate Lebanon’s government.

Parliament failed three times from Aug. 18 up to Gemayel’s departure to elect his successor, partly because militant Christians rejected two Syrian-backed candidates.