BEIRUT: Lebanese politician Tammam Salam was named prime minister yesterday after he won a sweeping parliamentary endorsement, pledging to bridge the country’s deep divisions and shield it from the dangers of neighbouring Syria’s civil war.
Salam was designated after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose two years in office were dominated by efforts to contain sectarian tensions, violence and economic fallout from the Syrian conflict. His immediate task, if he is able to form a cabinet accepted by Lebanon’s rival political forces, will be to prepare for a parliamentary election which is due in June but faces delay.
The Syrian bloodshed has exacerbated tensions in Lebanon, which fought a ruinous civil war from 1975 to 1990. Rival Sunni and Shia Muslim and Christian politicians have failed to agree an electoral system under which the vote will take place.
In his first comments after his appointment, Salam said he would seek to “unite opinion and reach speedy agreement on a parliamentary electoral law to achieve fair representation for all citizens and sects”.
He also pledged to focus on “ending Lebanon’s political divisions and its impact on the security situation, and averting the dangers from the neighbouring tragedy (in Syria)”.
Salam, born in 1945 into a prominent Sunni political dynasty, is close to the Saudi- and Western-backed March 14 coalition but was chosen as a consensus candidate acceptable to the March 8 bloc, which includes the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its mainly Shia and Christian allies.
March 14 groups mainly Sunni and Christian parties which pushed, with US and European support, for Syria to end nearly three decades of military presence in Lebanon in 2005.
Referring to speculation over whether his government should be a short-term technocratic administration focused only on preparing for elections, or a ‘national unity’ government with longer-term ambition, Salam said: “I will absolutely strive to form a government of national benefit”.
In a sign of shifting foreign influence in Lebanon, whose politicians lived in the shadow of Damascus long after President Bashar Al Assad withdrew his army eight years ago, Salam’s elevation appear to owe much to Saudi intervention.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose announcement on Thursday that he backed March 14’s nomination guaranteed Salam a parliamentary majority, said he reached his decision after talks with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
Despite the overwhelming support for Salam, he may face a lengthy struggle to form a government. His predecessor, Mikati, took five months assemble a ministerial team and a March 8 source said Salam could also take months to put together a cabinet.
Reuters
