Objecting to Reconciliation and the Spirit of the Doha Accord
There are some who are not happy with reconciliations taking place in Lebanon. These reconciliations torment them, confuse them and cause them to fume. However, they quickly relax in their chairs and resort to an easy method, one of responding to them in bloody fashion, by committing assassinations and sparking clashes in the hope of aborting or at least freezing reconciliations to undermine their ability to secure relative stability for the country. Then, such people wait and watch to gauge the results that can be reaped, and to determine whether the right people understood the message and decided to obey it, so that they can act accordingly.
Lebanon has entered a very dangerous phase, with the May 7 bloody clashes in Beirut, Mount Lebanon and the North, then Tripoli and the Bekaa. The crisis has moved from phase to phase, each one more difficult. It has given free rein to civil strife that is difficult to control. The reconciliations, which have come to dominate the rhetoric of many political circles, are a type of behavior that opposes civil strife and reduces the ability to exploit them, so that Lebanon remains an open arena where they can be exploited in many ways, depending on the circumstances.
The assassination of a leading figure in the Lebanese Democratic Party can be seen as a message addressed to Talal Arslan and to the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, a message of warning against their "coming-together" since last May. The circumstances surrounding the crime mean its dimensions and goals transcend Mount Lebanon and relations between Jumblatt and Arslan. Observers might see many incidents and local reconciliations that have taken place, or are taking place, in a small area in which the Druze community is located. However, the general political climate certainly puts the crime in its wider context. It comes after the reconciliation process was launched in Tripoli, led by the leader of the Future Movement, MP Saad al-Hariri, and after many calls and efforts in this direction, despite the constant obstacles, to see Future sit down with Hezbollah and Amal. It also comes after President Michel Suleiman rushed an invitation to convene the National Dialogue, after many delays .
The logic of reconciliations has gradually pulled the rug out from under the feet of foreign powers whose goals require keeping Lebanon an arena of fighting and various types of interventions; keeping it ready to be used at any time, whether for bargaining or an eruption of the situation… under regional conditions fluctuating between negotiations and confrontation. If reconciliation is a type of protest action against seeing Lebanon remain such an open arena, then assassinations and the use of bloody messages are the counter-measures against such protest action. From this angle, it resembles the attempts to change the balance of power through assassination and by force, which began with the attempt against the life of former Minister Marwan Hamade on October 1, 2004. This spate continued for another three years and killed former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
The Doha Accord was a temporary settlement. It launched a course that prohibits violence and the use of weapons, while awaiting the more durable settlement to be devised during the National Dialogue. The election of President Suleiman was a shortened expression of this desired settlement. There was confusion surrounding this step, between the need to submit it to the military balance of power, which produced Arab intervention in order to arrive at this settlement, and the stipulations of the Phoenicia Paper, which called for returning to the status quo ante. In this climate, the reconciliations launched an implementation mechanism after a delay, with major Arab contributions, mostly from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, through the visit by Saudi Ambassador Abdel Aziz Khoja to Tripoli and the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmad Abu Gheit, to Beirut. They played a role in speeding up the reconciliation as a political step followed by other security steps, to preserve the spirit of the Doha Accord. The dynamism of the reconciliations also revived the inaugural address of President Suleiman, when he called for "strengthening the nation with a culture of dialogue and not rendering it an arena for conflicts." He called on the Lebanese to "unite and show solidarity, and move toward a firmly-rooted reconciliation."
In short, Saleh Aridi”s assassination is directed against the spirit of the Doha Accord. It insinuates that the opposition to this spirit is launching a new, bloody phase. What is the plan of the Arab Ministerial Committee that sponsored the Doha Accord? How will it confront the attempt to eliminate this achievement?