Beirut – Pressure has been mounting in recent days for the resignation of President Emile Lahoud, who has clung to office even as his Syrian backers have been forced to withdraw from the country.
Lebanon’s recently elected prime minister and his Cabinet are avoiding Lahoud, and his influence is hard to detect in most government offices.
He keeps a low profile, rarely making public appearances or giving interviews. But as hard as he may try to remain out of sight, he has been on many minds here in recent days, as Lebanese have taken to predicting his imminent political demise.
Things appeared to come crashing down on Lahoud last week, when four senior security men, including his current head of security, Mustafa Hamdan, were cited as suspects by a U.N. investigation into the assassination of a former prime minister, Rafik Hariri.
“It is all but sure now that he will have to step down – the question is when,” said Fares Boueiz, a lawyer who is a former minister of foreign affairs and the environment. “The man is no longer able to rule the country, and I don’t think this can last another two months.”
The suspects – Jamil al-Sayyed, former chief of general security; Ali Hajj, former chief of the Lebanese police; Raymond Azar, a former military intelligence chief; and Hamdan – were charged with murder, attempted murder and carrying out a terrorist act. The men, once feared as Syria’s proxies in Lebanon, faced formal proceedings before a Lebanese investigative judge over the weekend.
Lahoud is not a formal suspect in the investigation, for which a report is expected to be issued next month, and has been cooperating with investigators, Det lev Mehlis, the chief U.N. investigator, said last week. But Lahoud’s close ties to the suspects and his unusual step of arguing Hamdan’s innocence with the investigators only deepened the suspicion of him.
“They are the president’s men, his collaborators, and even though they are not indicted yet, Lahoud is politically isolated,” said Nawaf Salam, professor of political science at the American University in Beirut. “The closer we are to the date of the release of Mehlis’ report, the more isolated Lahoud will become.”
In a defiant statement last week, Lahoud insisted that he intended to complete his term in office, which ends in 2007.
“I will continue to fulfill my responsibilities to safeguard the constitution, Lebanese laws and the integrity of Lebanese territory,” the statement said.
So far, he has survived thanks to the same force that has kept most other Lebanese bosses in power: sectarianism.