Lebanon’s New Cabinet Forms Panel to Draft Policy Statement 

Associated Press, Arab News

BEIRUT, 21 April 2005 — Lebanon’s new Cabinet prepared yesterday to seek Parliament approval, saying its priority is to arrange quick elections and to cooperate in a sensitive UN investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The 14-member Cabinet held its first meeting yesterday after it was formed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, ending a nearly two-month government crisis and opening the way for crucial Parliament elections.

The elections are supposed to take place before Parliament’s term ends May 31. The anti-Syrian opposition expects to win the vote and end the domination of pro-Damascus lawmakers. Mikati’s government has to quickly push an election law through Parliament for the vote to be held on time.

Information Minister Charles Rizk said the Cabinet’s priority would be to “uncover the truth about Hariri’s assassination in collaboration with an international investigation commission” and to prepare “as soon as possible, a new electoral law” — as well as work to revive Lebanon’s economy, ailing after months of turmoil.

The UN is sending a team to investigate Hariri’s death in a massive Feb. 14 bomb blast that killed 20 other people. The probe is highly sensitive: Lebanon’s pro-Syrian leadership had long refused any international investigation, until a UN report last month said Lebanon’s own probe was plagued by mistakes.

The opposition has blamed Syria and its allied government in Lebanon for Hariri’s killing, a charge both governments have denied. The assassination sparked massive anti-Syrian protests that forced the removal of then-Prime Minister Omar Karami and his Cabinet on Feb. 28 — throwing the country into seven weeks without a government.

Mikati’s Cabinet yesterday formed a panel to draw up a policy statement on the basis of which it will seek the Parliament’s endorsement. The drafting committee, made up of Mikati and six other Cabinet members, would meet immediately to begin drafting the policy statement, Rizk said.