In an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, President Bush criticized Hizbullah and went so far as to offer American “assistance” if they refused to disarm:

BEIRUT: U.S. President George W. Bush lashed out at Hizbullah on Tuesday, calling the Lebanese resistance group a “dangerous organization.” Speaking in an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, Bush said: “There is a reason why we’ve put Hizbullah on a terrorist list. They’ve killed Americans in the past. We will continue to work with the international community to keep them on that list and we will continue to pressure this group.”

He added: “You can’t have a free country if a group of people are like an armed militia.”

He stressed: “Hizbullah is trying to destabilize the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It is a dangerous organization.”

Bush added that if Lebanon failed to implement the clause in UN Resolution 1559 calling for the disarmament of all militia, and if Hizbullah refused to disarm, the U.S. would be willing to offer its assistance in doing so.

The President also had a message for Bashir Assad of Syria, who still has 1500 troops and the remnants of his intelligence service embedded in Lebanon:

He said: “The United States can join with the rest of the world, like we’ve done, and say to Syria ‘Get out – not only get out with your military forces, but get out with your intelligence services, too. Get completely out of Lebanon, so Lebanon can be free and the people can be free.’”

The U.S. president was confident Syrians “know what we expect. They have to stop their support of the Baathists in Iraq, stop inciting violence in Iraq and stop the arms smuggling into Iraq.”

In a thinly veiled threat, Bush said that if Syria doesn’t implement these demands: “We are just beginning. Diplomacy is the first course of action and if not … I’m sure diplomacy will work

Meanwhile, new Prime Minister Najib Mikati is trying to form a government, taking opposition demands into account for the first time:

Mikati’s Cabinet is made up of mostly new faces, at least eight of which are close to the pro-Syrian regime, with others close to – but not direct members of – the opposition.

Speaking after a closed-door meeting with Lebanon’s two pro-Syrian leaders, President Emile Lahoud and Speaker Nabih Berri, Mikati said: “Some people may have reservations about this Cabinet.”

He added: “But I assure you that all the members of this Cabinet will not be candidates in the elections. The government will hold parliamentary elections as fast as possible and, God willing, within the constitutional period,” which ends May 31.

Most opposition groups have given cautious support to the new government, choosing to try and end the political crisis that has gripped the country since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and the subsequent street demonstrations that demanded the ouster of Syrian troops and Syrian influence from the country:

Aley MP Akram Shehayeb, an ally of opposition leader Walid Jumblatt, said the opposition will give Mikati a vote of confidence if his ministerial statement, due to be released early next week, comprises the opposition’s longstanding demands.

He listed the demands as “the dismissal of security officials and of the public prosecutor, that the elections be held on time and that the Lebanese government be extremely positive in dealing with the international probe into Premier Hariri’s murder,” and added: “Many people in this Cabinet are extremely respectable. But others are at the service of the intelligence agencies.”

And that’s the huge problem facing Lebanon; the fact that many of its experienced leaders have demonstrated dual loyalties to both Assad’s Syria and their native country. Not only its leaders, but groups like Hizbullah have been at the beck and call of Syria’s intelligence services since the occupation began.

In a conciliatory editorial, the Daily Star is asking the Lebanese people to reach out to the Syrian people and build bridges of understanding between the two countries:

The Syrian people did not choose the operatives who served in Lebanon; they were not consulted about sending these agents, nor do they participate in the decision-making of their government. They are as subject to the abuse of power by unaccountable security agencies as we were.

We must begin building bridges with the Syrian people, not just in the name of fairness or of good relations, but in the name of the truth that we are seeking. It is incumbent upon the Lebanese people and government to begin absolving the Syrian people from the blame that their security apparatus well deserves.

Any bridges built will apparently have to deal with the fact that Hizbullah is now a force to be reckoned with politically as well as militarily. Refusing to disarm while the electoral process is underway, the terrorist group has allied itself with another pro-Syrian faction, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM):

Representatives from Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement said on Tuesday Lebanon’s best option out of the country’s worst political crisis since the end of the civil war is through rational dialog leading to parliamentary elections.

Ghaleb Abu Zeinab and Ziad Abs, representing respectively Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement insisted during a panel discussion at the American University of Beirut that adopting an electoral law based on larger districts with proportional representation “will lead to the second and prosperous rebirth of the country.”

According to Abs, both the FPM and the resistance are liberation organizations with political agendas.

He added: “The difference is in the choice each has made or will make in the future on whether to remain a liberation movement or become a political party willing to transform Lebanon into a habitable country.”

And the former head of the FPM (and former Prime Minister) Michel Aoun has said he will run for President if he’s nominated.

Speaking from his headquarters in exile in France, the former General in Chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces, said “I do not run away from confrontation, and if I am nominated to be president I will not refuse, but that does not mean that I will nominate myself for presidency.”

This is typical doublespeak from someone who most observers of Lebanese politics feel is one of the slipperiest fish in that country’s political ocean. At various times he’s been pro-Syrian, anti-Syrian, pro-Christian, anti-Christian, and both an ally and enemy of current President Emil Lahoud. He’s accepted support from Saddam Hussein as well as the Saudis. In short, he’s a shameless opportunist. It’s unlikely though that even his own FPM party will nominate him for the Presidency, which is nominally reserved for someone from the faction representing Christians.

What all this adds up to is that although there have been huge demonstrations in favor of an opposition that seeks to eradicate all vestiges of Syrian influence, it’s apparent that whatever government emerges from the elections next month will have an enormous task in trying to unite all of the disparate elements of Lebanese society into a strong enough coalition so as to resist the machinations of President Assad and his murderous agents who still wield influence to this day.

Cross Posted at Blogger News Network