Lebanon’s ‘Cedar Revolution’ Loses Momentum

Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami had resigned due to pressure from the opposition but has now been reappointed to form the government.

In addition, the US administration has reluctantly removed long-time enemy Hezbollah from its list of terrorist organizations and has even gone so far as to signal that it should be "recognized". Hezbollah gathered over one million people in the streets of Beirut in support of Syria.

Although Syria has started a gradual withdrawal of its 14,000 troops in Lebanon, it is expected that Syria will keep its influence over this country for some time more. Pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emil Lahud’s reappointed of Prime Minister Karami to form the government supports this expectation. 69 out of 128 deputies in the Lebanese Parliament nominated Karami for prime minister. Karami has said that the only way to overcome the crisis is with a national unity government, but the opposition does not support him and is ignoring his call for all parties to join the new government. The opposition’s announcement reads: "Karami is not capable of forming a national unity government because he is from the other front, that is to say, a pro-Syrian front."

Lebanese Minister of Defense Abbdurrahim Murad has announced that thousands of Syrian soldiers have been withdrawing from Lebanon and that about six or seven thousand soldiers will withdraw in the first stage. The Lebanese Minister said: "Many of the retreating soldiers are returning to Syrian territory."

An interesting report of "policy change" regarding the recent developments has come from the US front. An unnamed US official told the New York Times that the US administration is prepared to recognize the Shiite Hezbollah organization as a political power by reluctantly removing it from its terrorist list. "Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. They are in the same category as Al-Qaeda. The administration has an absolute aversion to admitting that Hezbollah has a role to play in Lebanon, but that is the path we’re going down." The US official added that the White House is prepared to recognize Hezbollah.