Efforts intensified to help defuse tension between President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Wednesday, with political sources calling for a carefully calibrated compromise.
A week after feuding between the two men sank Cabinet efforts to privatize the telecommunications sector, the country’s cellular network remained the central battleground separating Baabda and Koraytem. A senior political source told The Daily Star that any solution to the impasse would require a compromise that would not be perceived as a defeat by either of the two
senior leaders.
“The (telecommunications) minister (Jean-Louis Qordahi) should come up with such a middle ground formula,” the source said, suggesting that efforts have already started in this direction.
According to the official version of the political feud, the president believes that the state should recover the cellular network from the two cellular companies, Cellis and LibanCell, before privatizing the sector, while Hariri favors allowing the two companies to operate until they are put on the auction block.
But rumors have been circulating that the disagreement is not one of policy difference, but rather personal interest.
Amid growing tensions, speculation mounted that a Syrian intervention could be necessary to contain the feud, as “coexistence between the two is an inevitable matter” until the end of the presidential mandate, a political source close to Damascus said.
The source said that Syrian officials advised the country’s top leaders to work out their differences amiably and avoid a political deterioration.
Sources close to Baabda elaborated on the president’s stand on the cellular issue, explaining that Lahoud was not against the privatization of the profitable sector, which remains one of the safest means to secure revenues for the Treasury. But if privatization were to occur, it would have to be accomplished in accordance with the law, the sources said.
The sources added that Lahoud was opposed to what he considered to be the premier’s attempts to misguide the public into thinking that the government was unable to run the cellular network itself through an international company.
Lahoud reportedly asserted in this context that not all international companies were thieves, and nor was the government unable to protect its own interests.
In any scenario, presidential sources said that Lahoud was committed to knowing in advance the expected windfall for the government, in addition to the expected annual revenues for the Treasury. The president is also reportedly seeking a government review of the current operations of the two cellular firms.
Meanwhile, politicians close to both sides played down the dispute. MPs close to Hariri, such as Beirut MP Bassem Yamout, said that there were no disagreements between the two senior leaders, while Interior Minister Elias Murr ­ one of Lahoud’s closest allies ­ also said that there was no personal misunderstanding between Lahoud and Hariri. Murr added that the difference of opinions between them on the matter had been reduced.
Amid these latest developments, eyes turned to Speaker Nabih Berri who was expected to mediate between Lahoud and Hariri. The speaker met with the president in Baabda on Wednesday as part of his weekly visits to the presidential palace after having met with Hariri on Monday evening in Ain al-Tineh, before the premier’s departure for Malaysia. Berri also received Qordahi in Parliament on Tuesday.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt also met Lahoud in Baabda Wednesday, lending his weight to defuse the spat between the president and premier.
Berri told MPs who visited him at Nijmeh Square on Wednesday that he was not a mediator between the president and the government in their dispute over privatization. He added that Parliament will have greater responsibilities to assume when time comes to pass final legislation on the matter.

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