Lahoud Isolated, He Better Step Down

I've been thinking all night about this: President Lahoud has basically lost international legitimacy. Who is the European Union meeting in Brussels? Who just met with Germany, France, and is going to meet with Russia? The Lebanese Opposition delegation.

We can see clearly Lahoud's resentment towards the international legitimacy that the Opposition has garnered, when he refused to receive the Opposition's letter that included their requests and snubbed off MP Fares Soueid and MP Ghinwa Jalloul yesterday afternoon. Moreover, we can see clearly that such resentment has led to the blind re-appointment of Karami as a Prime Minister, after hopeful talks that Hoss was the most suitable candidate. (I guess Hoss's stand that UNSCR 1559 cannot be rejected because it's a resolution passed from the highest authority that represents international law and legitimacy, the United Nations, did not sit well with Lahoud.)

Lahoud is truely isolated now, and Lebanon is divided, not only on the domestic level, but more strikingly on the international level. If you recall, Jumblatt was initially going to travel to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Russia...alone. We learn afterwards that Jumblatt has met with Germany's Joschka Fisher and a delegation from the Opposition will be traveling to meet Jumblatt in Brussels for talks with the European Council, represented by Javier Solana. Yesterday we also saw UN envoy to Syria and Lebanon, Terje Roed Larsen, meeting with EU representatives upon his trip back to the region. So perhaps we can see a nod from Kofi Annan that the Opposition is an internationally-recognized Lebanese entity.

Lahoud is better to step down. He should be embarassed that he is unrecognizable to even Arab countries that have always sided with Lebanon. And his latest move to re-appoint Karami as a Prime Minister is a pathetic move only accentuating his paralysis.

Despite all that, I'm still so weary of the next moves: tomorrow a pro-Syrian demonstration in Tripoli, on Sunday a similar demonstration in Nabatieh, and waiting to see what the Opposition's reaction would be towards Karami's call for a national unity government....

"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."