Divided Lebanon Seeks an Interim Leader

Politicians held a wave of closed-door meetings to select an interim government a day after Lebanon’s Syria-backed administration collapsed following massive street protests.

Battered from its 15-year civil war and dominated by its stronger neighbor, Lebanon will face a major test in the coming days as a divided parliament and the president try to choose an interim prime minister.

The new premier will lead the country toward parliamentary elections scheduled for this spring. The poll will be a virtual referendum on Syria, which keeps about 16,000 soldiers in Lebanon and controls its neighbor’s politics through a vast network of intelligence agents.

A parliamentary debate to choose a premier was expected to begin this week.

“Will the choice be accepted by the opposition or not?” asked Farid Chedid, a political analyst who runs Lebanonwire.com. “If they chose somebody who antagonizes the opposition, the troubles will continue. Lebanon is really on the brink of political violence if they don’t make the right choice.”

President Emile Lahoud, a Syria supporter who is under pressure to quit, was to meet Tuesday night with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss possible candidates. But it is unclear whether Syria’s opponents in parliament, who are gleeful after Monday’s surprise resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami, will help in picking his successor.

Some opposition lawmakers leaked names of potential premiers -- including Bahiya Hariri, a legislator and the sister of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated last month. Hariri’s killers remain unknown, but the bombing was widely blamed on Syria. Thousands of Lebanese poured into the streets Monday to demand the ouster of Syria, protests that led to the toppling of the government.

On Tuesday, some opposition lawmakers threatened to boycott the debate over the interim premier. They are demanding the resignation of Lebanese intelligence and security chiefs, an international investigation into the bombing that killed Hariri and the establishment of a “neutral government” -- in other words, a prime minister without ties to Syria.

“These are our conditions to talk with the government, to talk with the president of the republic,” said Fares Souaid, a Christian lawmaker and virulent opponent of Syria. “These are our conditions for normalization with the government.”

The eruption of anti-Syria fervor in Lebanon follows a U.N. Security Council resolution last year that called on Syria to withdraw its soldiers from Lebanon. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the developments in Lebanon and stepped up pressure on Syria, insisting that Lebanon must be cleansed of Syria’s “contaminating influences.”

Speaking to reporters at a London conference on Palestinian reform, Rice blamed Damascus for frustrating the democratic aspirations of people throughout the Middle East. Syria, she said, was “standing in the way of Lebanese, Iraqis, Palestinians and others in their aspirations for a better world.”

The Syrian regime has been reluctant to withdraw its soldiers from Lebanon without striking a peace deal with Israel, a country with which Syria is formally at war. Damascus also argues that Lebanon needs Syrian soldiers to keep the peace.

Without Syrian forces squelching violence from the Hezbollah militant group and in Palestinian refugee camps, Lebanon would disintegrate into bloodshed, Syrian officials say.

But in an interview published Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar Assad hinted that Syria was ready to pull its troops from Lebanon within months.

Withdrawal “should be very soon and maybe in the next few months. Not after that,” Assad told Time magazine. “I can’t give you a technical answer. The point is the next few months.”

In Washington, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, who oversees U.S. troops in the Middle East, predicted on Tuesday that Syrian troops eventually would leave Lebanon.

“It’s inevitable that Syrian forces will leave, that the Syrian forces and the Syrian government will do a reassessment of the role that they play in the region,” said Abizaid, who is of Lebanese descent, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I believe the Lebanese have had enough of civil war.”

In Lebanon, the demonstrations against Syria have unfolded under a banner of sectarian unity. But observers warn that beneath the fervent chants and slogans, Lebanon’s political reality remains splintered. Although many Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims have joined the opposition, Shiite Muslims, the country’s largest sect, have largely kept their distance.

In the weeks since Hariri’s death, Shiites and others who may be in favor of a slower Syrian withdrawal have been quiet. But as Lebanon moves toward elections, a deep split between Syria loyalists and the opposition movement is expected to emerge.

“What’s missing from all the pictures we’re seeing is the 50% of the Lebanese public which is not supportive of the opposition,” said Bassam Haddad, a political science professor and Syria expert at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “I think in the next week or so we’ll begin to hear those voices.”

It is also unclear how Hezbollah will respond to new political pressures. The Shiite guerrillas massed on Israel’s border are backed by Syria, but Hezbollah is an important political and cultural force and would be loath to distance itself from recent events.

“The wild card in all of this is Hezbollah,” said Jamil Mroue, publisher of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut.

Political posts in Lebanon are divvied under a quota system designed to balance power between Lebanon’s sects. The president is always Christian, the house speaker must be Shiite Muslim and the prime minister’s job is reserved for a Sunni Muslim.

In Beirut, demonstrators were caught off guard by the fall of the government, which seemed to distract attention from calls for a Syrian withdrawal. Some opposition leaders changed course and issued calls for calm in the wake of the government’s resignation. Nevertheless, protests were expected to continue.

“The real thing is Syria,” said Lebanese columnist Michael Young. “They’re not going to lose focus on the real issue at hand.”

Some of the opposition leaders were urging protesters to keep up their vigil outside the huge limestone mosque where Hariri was buried. Demonstrators milled downtown Tuesday, chanting “Syria out!” and waving their flags tirelessly -- but their numbers had dwindled from tens of thousands into the hundreds.

“We’re not sure what happens next, but so far, it’s not enough,” said 29-year-old Ziad Halaby, who works in a watch shop and said he hadn’t been involved in politics until this week. “We want to get out the people who are behind the government, the dark side. Syria.”

Staff writers Paul Richter in London and Mark Mazzetti in Washington contributed to this report.