Lebanon’s pro-Western government yesterday backed down in its bloody standoff with the militant Shi’ite Hezbollah group, leaving U.S. officials with the task of defending a deal between one of its top allies in the region and a group that has long sat atop the list of terrorist organizations.
On a day in which President Bush told Israel’s parliament that negotiating with terrorists amounted to the false comfort of appeasement, Arab League mediators in Beirut announced a deal between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah to end the bloodiest sectarian fighting in the country since the 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.
Under the plan, the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora rescinded two rulings last week that triggered Hezbollah’s violent takeover of large parts of the capital and left more than 80 people dead.
Mr. Siniora’s Cabinet made another concession in agreeing to direct talks with Hezbollah starting today in Qatar to end a political stalemate that has paralyzed the government for 18 months.
The Bush administration condemned Hezbollah’s intimidation campaign and accused its allies Syria and Iran of trying to undermine Lebanon’s elected government. At just about the time the Arab League compromise was announced, Mr. Bush was telling the Israeli Knesset that the strategy of trying to negotiate with terrorists and radicals was a foolish delusion.
We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history, Mr. Bush said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said later in Washington that the United States would not second-guess the Siniora government for agreeing to bargain with Hezbollah.
Sitting back here in Washington in the comfort of our own democracy, rights and freedoms, I don’t think it’s appropriate to start second-guessing those people who are making decisions that literally will determine whether democracy survives to fight another day, another week, another month and another year, he said.
Mr. McCormack said the president’s remarks were not targeted at internal Lebanese politics — a notoriously tangled weave of Christian, Sunni Muslim and Shi’ite communities.
As part of the deal, the Siniora government canceled an order to dismantle Hezbollah’s private telephone network and to reinstate a Shi’ite army officer who headed security at Lebanon’s international airport.
Hezbollah officials permitted the removal of roadblocks and other barriers installed last week as part of a civil disobedience campaign to protest the government’s moves. The first commercial flight in a week landed at Beirut’s airport shortly after the deal was announced.
We want to return to a settlement which leads, in the end, to there being neither victor nor vanquished, said Sheik Naim Kassem, Hezbollah’s deputy leader.
Some in Lebanon said the violence could damage Hezbollah’s campaign to portray itself as a national resistance movement and responsible political player.
The Shi’ite group occupies an anomalous position in Lebanon, with elected representatives in parliament heading the opposition while it maintains a heavily armed and well-trained militia outside the control of the Lebanese military or the civilian government.
But the ease with which hardened Hezbollah militia fighters took control of the capital’s Muslim neighborhoods, and the feeble resistance of fighters allied with Sunni Muslim, Christian and Druze factions, could mark a permanent change in the country’s delicate balance of power.
Hezbollah and its allies clearly prevailed in the military showdown, according to an analysis released yesterday from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
The [pro-Western ruling] coalition continues to govern, but it has been humiliated and is exposed to the anger of a rank-and-file that felt defenseless, the analysis said.
•This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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