{"id":2634,"date":"2011-01-14T13:33:24","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T09:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=2634"},"modified":"2011-01-14T13:33:24","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T09:33:24","slug":"is-hariris-brief-political-career-drawing-to-a-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/is-hariris-brief-political-career-drawing-to-a-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Hariri&#8217;s Brief Political Career Drawing to a Close?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/saadhariri-395.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2635\" title=\"saadhariri-395\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/saadhariri-395-e1294988819434.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"493\" height=\"302\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The not-so-inevitable has happened with surprising speed. Hizbollah and its March 8 allies have walked out of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/node\/11412809\">so-called<\/a> unity government in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>The ostensible trigger was Prime Minister Hariri\u2019s failure to agree to an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-middle-east-12170608\">emergency meeting<\/a> on the STL indictments. The real reason is that after months of pressure, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowlebanon.com\/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=228927\">Hariri is still refusing<\/a> to distance himself from the tribunal investigating his father\u2019s 2005 assassination.<\/p>\n<p>Hariri was caught in an incredibly uncomfortable spot. Reject the STL and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=newsarchive&amp;sid=aXGePw7y4358\">more<\/a> of his far-right cabinet colleagues (who already feel isolated by Hariri <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/8422099.stm\">cuddling up to Syria<\/a> and Hizbollah) would have quit, and finally put the nail in the coffin of his five-year-old political project. Support the STL, and allies of an under-threat Hizbollah could\u2019ve <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/7393982.stm\">caused trouble<\/a> on the streets.<\/p>\n<p>This is the best-case scenario for Hariri. He gets to stay on as caretaker Prime Minister (and if the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowlebanon.com\/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=41825&amp;MID=0&amp;PID=0\">last dispute<\/a> is anything to go by, he could remain in post for months, if not years), and his unhappy unity government colleagues are no longer at the table, shouting him down.<\/p>\n<p>Dare I say that Hariri could hae even agreed with Hizbollah that their mutual needs would both be best met by this walkout?<\/p>\n<p>For now, this looks like the end \u2013 in any meaningful way \u2013 of Hariri\u2019s short-lived and slightly impotent political career. And Lebanon will be none the worse for that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYRIA NEWS WIRE: Following Hizbollah&#8217;s withdrawal from the unity government, what is next for Prime Minister Hariri? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":2635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,83,60],"tags":[314,18309,2204,18330],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}