The pressures of French President Emmanuel Macron and after his second visit to Lebanon after the deadly explosion that took place in the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, Lebanon’s warring political forces have reached an agreement to now appoint the joint-acceptance proposed Mustafa Adib as the new Prime Minister (officially the President of the Council of Ministers) of Lebanon who took office from 31 August, 2020.
by T.C.
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Mustafa Adib is a career diplomat and has promised to form a government of technocrats; Emmanuel Macron, by demarcating Lebanon’s political forces from the outset a tight timetable “as the proposed roadmap” for Lebanon to emerge from the devastating spiral and specter of famine that has been endured, has managed to force all political forces to agree to it.
According to this “road map”, it is necessary to form a government of technocrats within fifteen days, so that the new government will then be able to announce the necessary reforms to both the economy and society and all this will be completed by the end of October 2020.
The country will then be able to apply for and receive the required loan funding from the IMF.
In any case, in order to reach this agreement between Lebanon’s warring political forces, French President Emmanuel Macron was forced to go beyond himself by looking only at the interests of the Lebanese people, thus accepting Hezbollah-the strongest Shiite political force in Lebanon-as a legitimate component of Lebanese political life.
If Lebanon’s new government along with Emmanuel Macron succeed in persuading Hezbollah to become a political party by abolishing its military and fanatical wing, as was done gradually and proportionally with the IRA and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland respectively, they will have largely launched peace in Lebanon and the wider region.
The problem with this strategy is Turkey’s influence in Lebanon and not so much in Iran, since Turkey, and through Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent meeting with Hamas members, aims to support economically and militarily Hezbollah to create problems for each Lebanese government but also in Israel in general with a view to satellite politically these two countries in Turkey’s geopolitical control.
Hezbollah should understand that only in Lebanon’s political arena will it be able to have results and will be in its favour if it abolishes its military part which also creates problems in Lebanon.
The fight is now beginning to achieve the goal of peace and prosperity in Lebanon. It is long and difficult, and everyone will have to bear the burden of creating a new economy and society in this very wounded country.
