Hariri resigns as Lebanon political crisis comes to a head

BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's billionaire Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri resigned and vowed he would not be heading the next government, bringing to a head a political crisis that has paralysed the country for weeks.
"I have ... submitted the resignation of the government, and I have declared that I will not be a candidate to head the (next) government," he said in a statement, blaming internal political differences for his decision.
Hariri, 59, a Sunni Muslim who has been prime minister for most of the past 12 years, first announced early last month that he planned to resign amid a political and diplomatic crisis over Syria's influence in Lebanese affairs.
The departure of the business tycoon, long regarded as a canny political player with close ties to Western leaders and financial creditors, also cast a cloud over the economic health of the country, which is 32 billion dollars in debt.
A presidential statement said Hariri submitted his resignation to President Emile Lahoud, his main political rival, who is favoured by Lebanon's political masters in Damascus.
"Hariri submitted his resignation which was accepted by President Lahoud ... who asked the current government to stay on as caretaker cabinet," it said.
Lahoud, whose mandate was controversially extended by three years under a Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment last month, will start compulsory parliamentary consultations Thursday to name a new premier, officials said.
A second presidential statement listed appointments for about four hours of consultations, including a private audience with former prime minister Omar Karameh, who is among a handful of Sunni figures thought to be possible replacements for Hariri.
Observers fear that a threatened boycott of the consultations by a number of MPs will give Lahoud a free hand to appoint a pro-Syrian figure as prime minister.
Most of the 29 MPs in the 128-member parliament who voted against extending Lahoud's term have previously declared that they would not participate in consultations to choose a new government.
They include the blocs of prominent Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and the Christian gathering of Qornet Shehwan, which have been calling for an end to Syrian interference.
The recent crisis was further aggravated with the resignation of four cabinet members over the extension of Lahoud's term, including a close Jumblatt aide who was injured in a failed assassination bid on October 1.
After a meeting of his 18-member bloc Wednesday, Jumblatt said "the Democratic Gathering ... can only be in harmony with itself and refrain from taking part in the staged parliamentary consultations."
Jumblatt warned that "the decision to extend (Lahoud's term) ... is a matter that will throw the country into a cycle of violence.
"And this time, the current regime in Lebanon will bare all its security and political claws, which it already started doing when it sent a booby-trapped car to assassinate Marwan Hamadeh," he added.
Hariri's move comes amid a standoff between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus and the United Nations, which on Tuesday repeated a call for Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon, a demand Damascus swiftly rejected.
Syria is believed to have around 16,000 troops on the ground in Lebanon, the remains of a much larger force sent in during Lebanon's civil strife, and both Beirut and Damascus insist the troops are there by mutual agreement.
Hariri's statement said internal political differences were behind his decision, although it was too early to say whether his resignation means the end of the tycoon's colourful political career.
"Facing the challenges, any challenges, can only be done through a unified domestic front that meets the goals of the Lebanese people ... but these objectives have been confronted by known political realities," said Hariri.
Hariri was first named prime minister at the relatively young age of 48 in 1992 when Lebanon was desperately seeking a saviour to help the country emerge from the massive destruction inflicted by the 1975-1990 civil strife.
Since then, the man credited by his admirers as the architect of country's post-civil war reconstruction and by his detractors as a spendthrift has headed five governments.
The fate of Hariri, who built his empire in Saudi Arabia and has business interests extending from construction to the media, had been uncertain for weeks, with no clear indication if he would resign to form a new government or leave office altogether.