Lebanon's new president to form unity government

Suleiman, who was elected by parliament on Sunday, will consult lawmakers on Wednesday on their choice for prime minister, a statement from the presidency said. He will ask the candidate nominated by most MPs to form the next government.

The parliamentary majority is expected to nominate its leader, Saad al-Hariri, or current prime minister, Fouad Siniora. The prime minister must be a Sunni according to Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.

He set to work immediately, scheduling consultations with lawmakers on Wednesday to begin forming a new government, an official in the president's office said on condition of anonymity pending a formal statement.

Suleiman, who was elected Sunday, has been head of Lebanon's army for 10 years.

The general was greeted by applauding staffers on a red carpet at the palace in hilly Baabda near Beirut, rather than by an outgoing president as is normally the custom. Lebanon has been without a head of state since November, when Emile Lahoud left office without a successor.

Suleiman's election is the first tangible step in the deal to end the political crisis which erupted this month into the worst violence since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

He faces a daunting task. Under the terms of the agreement reached lastweek in Doha, a new national unity cabinet will be formed in which Hezbollah and its allies have veto power.

He praised what he called Hizbullah’s resistance in confronting Israel but added they should not use weapons for internal fighting.

Disarming the Syrian-backed Hizbullah will be one of the toughest challenges Suleiman faces during his term, but analysts say he is too weak to bring this about. Suleiman is viewed as a weak personality, who was elected not because of his political skills, but because both sides viewed him as the candidate who would inflict the least harm. In his inaugural speech Suleiman immediately tackled the thorny issues troubling Lebanon, including the internal fighting, the investigation of former prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri’s assassination three years ago and Lebanon’s relations with neighboring Syria. Hizbullah will not be disarmed under the new government, Prof. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, a political scientist at Beirut’s Notre Dame University told The Media Line.  “The operating logic is that Hizbullah is going to stay around forever, regardless of what Israel or Syria do,” he said. Hizbullah left the national unity government in late 2006, demanding veto power over government decisions and more power.  Suleiman was chosen as the consensus candidate of the majority and opposition, but the election was postponed 19 times because political rivals could not agree on the power-sharing arrangements of the future government. Sunday’s election was made possible after the factional leaders reached an agreement last week brokered by the Qatari government in Doha.

"Lebanon is a pluralistic country. The existence of this country only comes about through co-existence," he said.

He said Hezbollah would not use its arms to attain its goals. Lebanon saw fierce factional violence recently.

It was the first speech by Mr Nasrallah since Hezbollah gunmen seized several parts of Beirut, forcing the government to agree to a deal that has strengthened the Shia Muslim group's political role in Lebanon.

"I reaffirm the Doha agreement clause that prevents the use of arms to attain political goals," said Mr Nasrallah, whose Syrian- and Iranian-backed group has Lebanon's most powerful military force.

The Arab-brokered deal, signed in the Qatari capital, paved the way for Sunday's appointment of a president after a six-month delay.