Hezbollah dominates newly formed Lebanese cabinet

Five months after the Lebanese government disintegrated with the walkout of pro-Hezbollah factions, Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced his new cabinet Monday. Unsurprisingly, the new elite group is dominated by allies of Hezbollah, the strongest terrorist group in the Middle East.

As the Jerusalem Postreports, the majority of the cabinet posts are held by the coalition of individuals who helped bring down the government back in January when members of the government quit over a UN-backed tribunal investigating the murder of statesman Rafik al-Hariri, the former prime minister’s father. The tribunal was due to incriminate several members of the terrorist group.

Five months later, Hezbollah has effectively hijacked the Lebanese government.

As Reuters reports, “Shiite Hezbollah and its Christian and Druze allies secured 18 posts in the new government, up from 11 under Hariri’s coalition, enabling them to pass or block decisions more easily.”

In holding majority sway within parliament Hezbollah is now free to fulfill its terrorist agenda within the bounds of democratic rule in the Lebanese government.

As the Trumpet reported six years ago, “[S]upporting democracy in Lebanon means accepting the probability of Hezbollah’s rise.”

Six years after that statement was made, that probability is now reality.

To read more about how democracy functions in the volatile Middle East, see our 2005 article “The Democracy Paradox.”