And more from Chibli Mallat . . .
Shortly after my last post, I received the following in my in-box, from the Mallat campaign in Lebanon. Even with the horrific toll this weekend in Iraq, and the sickening news that the Administration was willing to paint an American plane in UN colors to try to provoke an Iraqi attack to help justify the war and that neither he nor Tony Blair actually expected to find WMD in Iraq, new winds are blowing in the Middle East.
From Dreamer to ContenderEven though a national election isn’t scheduled, human-rights activist Chibli Mallat is running for president. And his chances of winning are looking better all the time.
By Stephen Glain
Newsweek
Updated: 6:18 p.m. ET March 24, 2006
March 24, 2006 - Chibli Mallat, a Lebanese human-rights lawyer and activist, is campaigning as an independent for his country’s presidency. That makes him unique, for two reasons: First, in Lebanon’s highly factionalized politics, no one gets anywhere without belonging to an ethnic or religious clan. Second, there are no scheduled elections to contest. Last year’s Cedar Revolution, ignited by the killing of the Sunni political leader Rafik Hariri, may have put an end to Syria’s decades-long occupation of Lebanon, but Syrian proxy Emile Lahoud remains as the country’s president. Pro-democracy groups engaged in a so-called National Dialogue have as yet failed to hatch a plan to remove Lahoud without provoking a violent backlash from Damascus.
Nonetheless, political groups are jockeying for power, inspired in part by what they say is stiff pressure on Syria from Arab governments—in particular Saudi Arabia, which enjoyed close ties with Hariri—in favor of a peaceful transition of power in Lebanon. The 46-year-old Mallat’s own poll numbers meanwhile, indicate he has reached spoiler status. This month, Lebanon’s Maronite patriarch, the leader of the country’s largest Christian sect, gave the candidate what was interpreted by some as a passive endorsement, and the Saudi and Iranian ambassadors have requested interviews with Mallat. He spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Stephen Glain this week. Excerpts:
