The government's program will be debated in parliament starting Thursday, with the vote of confidence taking place Saturday, according to Beirut newspapers Tuesday. Leftist daily As Safir expected the government may get no more than 70 votes at the final session of the parliamentary debate. The Lebanese parliament is made up of 128 members. The newspaper said that MPs who had opposed the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term in office would vote against the government. It noted that Hizbullah would meet today to decide its position. It added, "the indication is that Hizbullah will vote against the government."

An Nahar, on the other hand, noted that Hizbullah is yet to determine its position. Moreover, the influential newspaper expected that the bloc of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri would abstain from voting. AS SAFIR said that Hariri has not yet decided if he would speak during the debate. The paper quoted sources close to Hariri's block as saying "the likelihood is that the bloc would vote against the government." Other news reports quoted Hariri as saying he and his block intended to adopt a "positive neutral stance" toward the government of Prime Minister Omar Karami. Since Karami had not criticized the previous Hariri government, "I won't be the first to adopt a negative stance toward his (Karami's) government," Hariri was reported as saying.

As Safir speculated that 59 MPs would withhold a vote of confidence. These include the Hariri bloc, (16), Druze leader Walid Jumblat's bloc, (18), Hizbullah, (12), Tripoli alliance, (3), Qornet Shahwan, (5), the Democratic Renewal bloc, (2), as well as MPs Fares Boueiz, Nazem Al Khoury and Ahmad Fatfat. The liberal daily AL BALAD reported Tuesday Hariri's bloc objected to the government's policy statement because it made no reference to privatization or the commitments of Lebanon under the Paris II donor conference. The paper said that the government is likely to receive the support "of a little more than half the members of parliament."

Jumblat and Democratic Renewal Party

The Democratic Gathering, which is headed by Walid Jumblat, and the Democratic Renewal Party, headed by MP Nassib Lahoud, met Monday at Jumblat's house in Beirut. AN NAHAR quoted Jumblat as saying at the end of the meeting "we will only pursue peaceful opposition." He described the government of Omar Karami as a "war government." He reiterated his accusation that the security agencies were behind the bid on the life of Marwan Hamadeh. AS SAFIR quoted Jumblat as praising the head of Hizbullah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, "for refusing to be drawn into abuses." In a reversal of an earlier position in which he had declared that the issue of the Shabaa Farms is a "legal matter," Jumblat said, "We know that Hizbullah will use all possible means to recover the Shabaa Farms, which is Lebanese territory."

AN NAHAR quoted Nassib Lahoud as saying, "the opposition is in the process of preparing a paper on its aims and objectives." He hoped that the document would be ready in the coming few weeks. Lahoud also responded to the declaration by David Satterfield, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Satterfield had announced on a Lebanese TV show Sunday evening that the U.S. does not embrace the Lebanese resistance. Lahoud said that he refused the interference of Syria in Lebanese affairs, and by the same argument, he refuses any U.S. intervention.

FPM Responds to Karami

The Free Patriotic Movement, which is headed by the exiled Army General Michel Aoun, accused Prime Minister Omar Karami of seeking to appease the Syrians "who brought him back to the post of prime minister after abandoning him for 12 years," AN NAHAR reported Tuesday. Karami had declared at a public rally in his hometown of Tripoli Sunday that "Syria had been in Lebanon before it sent its troops into the country in 1976, and it will remain in Lebanon after it withdraws its troops." He also said that Syrian troops are needed "in order to implement the remaining demands of UN Security Council resolution 1559." (See MER 1/11/04).

In a communiqu? quoted by AN NAHAR, the Free Patriotic Movement said that Karami "did not specify when Syrian troops will no longer be needed in Lebanon." The statement asked whether Karami's remarks "represented a submission to the notion of Syria's endless presence in Lebanon." Still, the movement accused Karami of "seeking to undermine national unity and of ignoring the majority of Lebanese as well as the international community."