Hezbollah, Amal Announce Resignation From Lebanese Government

Taken from Haaretz, 11.11.06
By Yoav Stern

The two major Lebanese Shiite political parties, Hezbollah and Amal, declared their intention to resign from the Lebanese government Saturday.

The two parties are represented in the government by five ministers, including Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, who will resign from their posts.

Salloukh nonetheless traveled to Cairo on Saturday, in order to participate in a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers on the Israel Defense Forces shelling of Beit Hanun that killed 20 Palestinians on Wednesday.

"We want to allow the majority to carry out its will freely, without being forced to agree to harming our supreme national interest," said a joint statement issued by the parties.

"We wish those serving in the government all the best," said the statement.

Hezbollah faction whip Mohammed Ra'ad accused the movement's rivals of trying to govern the country by themselves.

"We resigned because the majority is insisting on ruling alone, and we do not want to be accompanying [government] members only," he said.

The resignations follow a series of changes that have taken place in Lebanon as a result of the recent war with Israel, which undermined the balance of power between Lebanon's Shiite community, which is loyal to Syria, and the bloc comprised of Sunni, Druze, and majority of Christians, which controls a majority of seats in parliament.

The resignations are widely viewed in Lebanon as an attempt to cause political paralysis in the country in order to force the government to agree to changes that would increase the Shiite parties' political power.

Additionally, the paralysis in Lebanon's parliament, which controls the security forces, could harm the government's attempt to impose its control in southern Lebanon and restrain Hezbollah's military activities.

The resignation of the Shiite ministers also delegitimizes the government under the 1989 Taif Accord, which brought the Lebanese civil war to an end. According to the agreement, the Lebanese cabinet must include Shiite ministers.