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Lebanon's sigh of relief was short-lived, but why

By Hanady Salman
Al-Ahram Weekly

".....Why then, on Monday, was Hassan Nasrallah angry in the speech he gave to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Lebanon's liberation? Instead of the expected calm tone and calls for reconciliation, he gave a speech in which warnings were sent in more than one direction. Why? No one yet has the answer.

The next day, the 14 Marsh group went back to the "old" political discourse. Then they decided, after close consultations with Riyadh, to nominate Fouad Siniora to head the government, again.

People were expecting Saad Hariri to be nominated as a sign of real partnership between the different parties. The nomination of Siniora was a signal in the wrong direction.

On Wednesday, Damascus and Riyadh went back to mutual accusations, the Saudis and the emirates were attacking the Iranians. The Qataris, who had just got home after touring the region to thank all the parties concerned for making the Lebanon deal possible, are probably wondering today whether they were too fast in declaring that the region could sort out its own problems when given a chance to do so.

So what is it that happened between Sunday 25 May at 5pm (the election of the president) and Monday 26 May at 6pm (Nasrallah's speech) that changed things so dramatically? What is it that made the French, who had warmly supported the Doha agreement, take a step back on Wednesday and suddenly decide it needed to be fine-tuned?

Could it be that the 14th of Marchpeope gave the opposition in Doha what they had asked for, implying that they agree on a settlement, and then when they guaranteed the opposition was out of the streets, they went back to "business as usual", waiting to see how the Saudi-Syrian affair was going to develop........"