The Lebanese Hizbollah movement said Monday it does not intend to be part of the government new prime minister Rafiq Hariri is expected to form over the coming days.
"We have decided not to join a government which does not have a vision and clear program, and which will be formed on the basis of personal relationships," Hizbollah spokesman Mohammad Raad told journalists.
"We can't set sail aboard a ship when we don't know where it's bound," he added after talks with Hariri.
The 12 Hizbollah deputies did not back Hariri to be prime minister during Monday's parliamentary consultations with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.
The Hizbollah number two, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said the group's position was not directed personally against Hariri.
Hariri was appointed Monday after garnering the support of 106 of the Lebanese parliament's 128 deputies in their consultations with President Lahoud.
That overwhelming majority featured prominently in Lebanese press reports Tuesday, which also described how those who did not back him justified their position.
However, the media in Syria, which exercises key influence over its smaller neighbor, contented itself with a simple reporting of Hariri's nomination to the premiership.
The headlines in Lebanon's 12 dailies referred to the "overwhelming majority" that moved Lahoud to nominate Hariri despite the thorny relations between the men over the past two years.
Hariri is also dogged by the accusations of corruption over his premiership from 1992 to 1998, which resulted in the jailing of several of his close colleagues.
Lebanon's two mass circulation dailies, An-Nahar and As-Safir, said the huge parliamentary support given Hariri renders his job far less complex.
A similar chord was struck by the al-Mustaqbal daily, owned by the new prime minister, which headlined: "Hariri backed by an overwhelming majority, asked to form the government."
It said that although the parliamentary group of the Shiite Hizbollah was alone in its reservations in the parliamentary consultations, being backed only by presidential loyalists from the Kesruan-Jbeil area, it was "not hostile" to Hariri.
Justifying the Hizbollah's stance, the group's number two, Sheikh Naim Kassem said: "During the parliamentary consultations (for the formation of the next government) we are going to explain to Mr. Hariri that the line we took during the negotiations for naming the prime minister was not directed against him."
"What is more, we did not suggest anybody else in his stead and we did not oppose his nomination. We adopted our position, because not one of the potential candidates for the post of prime minister set out the main lines of their program," he added.
Sheikh Kassem also said Hizbollah will decide whether or not it will take part in the government over the next 24 hours.
Hizbollah spokesman Mohammad Raad said Monday after the parliamentary consultations with Lahoud that the movement had not put forward a name, but would decide whether or not to express confidence in the government on the basis of the main lines of its manifesto.
The other grouping which did not back Hariri, the five pro-Lahoud deputies from the Kesruan-Jbeil area, also defended its position opposing the huge parliamentary majority, saying "the attitude of the group is not directed against anyone in particular and it will give its backing to the Hariri government if it puts forward a program that will ensure (economic and social) recovery."
Meanwhile, the as-Safir daily quoted Hariri as saying he would not contemplate any showdown with Lahoud that would damage the country's interests and would "not re-open the chapter (of stormy relations with Lahoud) of the last two years."
He added that what interested him was to re-establish (international) confidence in the Lebanese state, the paper said - BEIRUT (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
