Skip to main content

Home/ Geopolitics Weekly/ Group items tagged Michel Aoun

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Pedro Gonçalves

US-backed ruling coalition claims election victory over Hezbollah in Lebanon elections ... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...anon-election-hezbollah-hariri

Lebanon Saad Hariri Hezbollah Michel Aoun

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 08 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Jubilant supporters of Lebanon's US-backed ruling coalition took to the streets last night, claiming a decisive election victory. It marks a dramatic reversal of fortunes after polls showed it losing its slim majority to a Hezbollah-led coalition backed by Syria and Iran.
  • Isolated voting booths, indelible ink and a voter education campaign launched by the interior ministry made the elections a significant improvement on 2005, with turnout averaging more than 50%.
  • The vote pitted a moderate Sunni-led government, supported by the west, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, against an opposition led by Hezbollah, the Middle East's most powerful militant group, which fought Israel in the devastating 2006 war and is financed by Iran's Shia government.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • There were widespread reports of vote-buying before the poll, with some Lebanese expatriates being offered free air tickets home. Though voting passed off largely without incident, tensions in the capital and the battleground Christian towns remained high, with the army imposing a midnight curfew on the capital.
  • With Sunnis largely aligned with the incumbent government coalition and Shias solidly behind the Hezbollah-led opposition, Christians, who make up nearly 40% of Lebanon's 3.26m eligible voters, provide the crucial swing vote.
  • Christian leader Michel Aoun redrew the political map in 2005 when he forged an unlikely alliance with Hezbollah, weathering fierce criticism from opponents. Aoun's party, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) could have delivered victory to Hezbollah's coalition if it had gained 10 extra seats in the 128-member parliament, which is divided equally between Muslims and Christians. The FPM has defended its alliance with Hezbollah as helping to stabilise Lebanon rather than give Hezbollah a platform for renewed conflict with Israel.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC NEWS | Middle East | How far will US support for Lebanon go? - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8064770.stm

Lebanon US Joe Biden Michel Suleiman Elias al-Murr Hezbollah

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 23 May 09 - Cached
  • Mr Biden also warned of likely consequences if Hezbollah and its allies were to prevail in the 7 June poll and form the kind of government Washington would frown on. The administration, he said, "will evaluate the shape of our assistance programmes based on the composition of the new government and the policies it advocates."
  • the Defence Minister, Elias al-Murr, at a display of some of the military hardware the US has supplied to the Lebanese Army in recent years. Mr al-Murr said that, in a visit to Washington last month, he had been given a written commitment by Defence Secretary Robert Gates to provide the Lebanese Army with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of arms and training over a five-year period, including helicopters and drones.
  • US leaders may already have concluded that a narrow win by the Hezbollah-led coalition would not be the end of the world. Hezbollah itself is only putting forward 11 candidates in the contest for 128 parliamentary seats. The other elements in the opposition coalition come from allies such as the mainstream Shia Amal movement, headed by parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, and the Free Patriotic Movement of the Christian leader Michel Aoun, once a fierce opponent of Syria but now reconciled with Damascus and likely to do well in many Christian areas.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The Americans' closest ally, Britain, is already allowing its diplomats to hold official contacts with Hezbollah's "political wing", although the movement is still shunned by Washington as a "terrorist" group.
1 - 2 of 2
Showing 20▼ items per page