MIDDLE EAST: Plan considered a major success for Lebanese prime minister , writes Lara Marlowe in Beirut
Lebanon yesterday pinned hopes for peace on a unanimous offer by the cabinet - including two Hizbullah ministers - to deploy 15,000 soldiers south of the Litani river, alongside the 2,000 UN peacekeepers of Unifil, the moment Israeli troops withdraw.
The replacement of the Shia Muslim militia by government troops was demanded by UN Security Council resolution 1559 two years ago, but was considered too internally divisive to be implemented. Reservists have been ordered to report for duty between August 10th and 16th.
While bombardments against both countries continued yesterday, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said the Lebanese proposal was "interesting" and Israel would "examine it closely".
Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Émile Lahoud, and Hizbullah had until this week opposed the deployment of the army in the far south, and the announcement was considered a major success for prime minister Fouad Siniora in his struggle to reassert central government authority. "I have no personal victories," Mr Siniora told The Irish Times in an interview in his office in the historic Ottoman Serail, which houses his office. "This is a victory for the country, in the interest of the Lebanese. A state has to be in full control."
Since 1968, southern Lebanon has been ruled by Palestinian guerrillas, Israeli occupation forces and then Hizbullah - never by the the Beirut government.
"I am taking the side of the state and the people," Mr Siniora continued. "The people want stability and security, and this cannot be achieved if we cannot get back land that is occupied by Israelis. Security cannot be regained if there are any weapons other than the weapons of the legitimate authority. This is the monopoly of the state in every other country; why not in Lebanon?"
Such words are music to the ears of the US and French governments, who co-authored resolution 1559. But it still takes a leap of faith to believe Mr Siniora's plan will end the war.
The cabinet did not specifically say that Hizbullah will be disarmed; only that the army will be deployed to the border. The information minister said the group could maintain a "political presence" in the south.
Mr Siniora dodged the question of whether the Lebanese army will fight Hizbullah if the group resists the deployment, saying, "This was a decision taken unanimously by the government in the presence of all representatives."
Vague, implied understandings about the future status of Hizbullah may be the only way to get the militia to stop fighting, but are unlikely to satisfy US and Israeli demands. Mr Siniora believes that if he can achieve three main objectives in negotiations - the withdrawal of Israeli troops; the return of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel; and the restoration of 45sq km known as the "Shebaa farms" to Lebanese sovereignty - Hizbullah will have no reason to retain weapons. "The Lebanese are going to ask them: 'Hizbullah: these were your objectives. Why do you still have weapons?' " he says.
Mr Siniora grew up in Sidon with the slain former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, and became Mr Hariri's banker when he began amassing a multibillion dollar fortune. Mr Hariri appointed Mr Siniora to five post-civil war governments, usually as finance minister.
But the well-mannered former banker and university lecturer sometimes gives the impression he is not cut out for the murderous politics of the Middle East. The job was thrust upon him, he admits, after the assassination of Mr Hariri, the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the election of an anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese parliament.
The Bush administration hailed the demonstrations that led to the Syrian departure as the "cedar revolution" and never ceased advocating the strengthening of Mr Siniora's democratically elected government, even as Israel destroyed the country. In the eyes of Lebanon, the draft Security Council resolution agreed by France and the US at the weekend was grossly weighted in Israel's favour.
Doesn't he feel betrayed by Washington? Mr Siniora heaved a huge sigh. "I am in the midst of a very fierce negotiation," he says. "I would like to talk about these things at a later date." Mr Siniora says the past month, when more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed and the infrastructure of his country bombed to pieces, has been the worst in his life. He has touched the hearts of Lebanese and many Arabs by several times weeping in public, though heaven knows what the Americans and Israelis thought of it.
"I cannot resist being affected by the fact that my innocent countrymen, children, are being killed," he explains. "You are not a human being if you don't react. I don't deny the fact that I am tired as well. This does not affect my resolve or determination. I am like a rock."
Mr Siniora says he takes strength from his family, who have temporarily joined him in the Serail that was exquisitely restored by Mr Hariri. He misses reading Arab poetry and listening to Arab classical music, sleeps five hours a night and speaks almost daily to Condoleezza Rice, Tony Blair and the French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy. But he hasn't been able to stop the bloodshed.
Clichés such as embattled, beleaguered and besieged come to mind. Yet Mr Siniora shows his mettle in small ways. At an Arab League foreign ministers' meeting here on Monday, the Syrian foreign minister Walid Moallem wanted the final communique to include a homage to "the Resistance", as Hizbullah are known to their supporters. The meeting was held to support the unified Lebanese position, Mr Siniora retorted, stopping the proposal in its tracks.
Though Mr Siniora has no personal political ambition, he is popular among around half the population who opposed Syrian domination of the country. The other half of the country - those who fear US and Israeli domination - follow the Hizbullah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli cabinet ministers talk of assassinating Nasrallah, as they did his predecessor, Sayyid Abbas Mussawi. After this war, Lebanese politics will doubtless revert to a vicious struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian factions, but Mr Siniora says he has "high regard" for Nasrallah, whom he describes as "a respectable man" who enjoys "a great deal of popularity among people."
Such cordial language is surprising in a country where political differences are settled with car bombs, but Mr Siniora is determined to preserve Lebanon's fragile unity.
Has the attitude of the self-described "modern, liberal" Sunni Muslim prime minister towards the Shia Party of God changed during the past month of war?
"You cannot say that someone who is fighting Israel, sacrificing his life and defending the country is bad," Mr Siniora says.
"We made our opinion [ condemning] the incident [ a cross-border raid which started the war] very clear on the day. Now we are being subject to attack - air raids, death from Israel. You cannot but stand side by side to defend the country."
Mr Siniora admits he often feels frustrated and powerless. "Look what the Israelis do, and the world is silent," he says. "The tears of some are more precious than the blood of others. This is the crux of the problem in our part of the world. People feel they are sons of an inferior God. The whole Muslim world feels it is being humiliated . . . All the odds are against me; everything is against me. But I never lose hope."