New Lebanese President Lahoud Announces New, Trimmed-Down Cabinet and Wide-Ranging Reforms

• Published in: The Washington report on Middle East affairs 1999-02, Vol.XVII (8), p.52
• Main Author: Dagher, Carole
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Appointments & personnel changes; Armed forces; Government; Government employees; International relations; Lahoud, Emile; Politics; Public officials
• ISSN: 8755-4917; 2163-2782

[Emile Lahoud] criticized some politicians for exploiting ties with Syria for individual interests and not for the benefit of the nation. He also thanked the people of southern Lebanon for standing up to Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory in the south. Lahoud said his main goal was a "clean judiciary and an administration subject to strict supervision free of political and confessional" interference. No one is allowed to be above the law, including himself, Lahoud declared. A day earlier, on the occasion of Independence Day, General Lahoud had addressed soldiers for the last time as army commander and reaffirmed that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) would not interfere in politics and that politics should be kept distant from the army. He added that the armed forces will remain committed to the orders and instructions of the political authorities as constitutionally represented by the Council of Ministers. The army's primary mission, General Lahoud stressed, remains the resistance to Israel's occupation of Lebanese territories. At Lahoud's sweating in, U.S. Congressman [Nick Rahall] (D-WV), who is of Lebanese origin, voiced confidence in Lebanon's future. U.S. Congressman [Ray LaHood] (R-IL) predicted that his cousin, General Lahoud, "will be one of the greatest presidents in the history of Lebanon," adding that the U.S. administration highly respects the army commander's unification and restructuring of the Lebanese armed forces.