PM Siniora's gov't on shaky ground
Photo: AP
Chaos in Lebanese gov't as pro-Syrian ministers resign
Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV says Hizbullah and allied Amal cabinet ministers resign from Lebanese government
Hizbullah and Amal cabinet ministers resigned from the Lebanese government on Saturday, Hizbullah's al-Manar TV Station said.
However, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora announced Saturday that he refused to accept the resignation of ministers.
The resignation of five Cabinet ministers from Amal and Hizbullah throws Lebanon's political landscape in chaos, though it does not automatically bring down the government.
But by quitting, the five Shiite Muslim cabinet ministers remove the political cover from the country's main sect and would make it difficult for Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to govern.
More than eight Cabinet ministers would need to resign before the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is considered dissolved.
Nonetheless, it would also be extremely difficult for Siniora to appoint new Shiite ministers in the Cabinet -which has to be half-Muslim, half-Christian- because an overwhelming majority of the Shiite legislators in Parliament belong to Amal or Hizbullah.
Al-Manar said the ministers from the Hizbullah guerrilla and allied Shiite Muslim Amal party stated they were resigning because all-party talks have fallen through and the government was trying to impose conditions for negotiation on a new government.
The news station, quoting from a statement issued by both Amal and Hizbullah, said the ministers from Hizbullah and allied Shiite Muslim Amal party declared they were resigning because all-party talks have fallen through and the government was trying to impose conditions for negotiation on a new government.
The TV announcement came on the heels of the failure earlier in the day, after a week of inter-party dialogue, to agree on a Hizbullah demand for a national unity government.
Al-Manar said the ministers resigned because they refuse "to cover up what we are not convinced of, and what might damage the supreme national interests. "The resignation came because the authorities "were insisting on imposing terms and premature results for negotiations."
It did not elaborate.
