LEBANON: ELIE FERZLI BASHES HARIRI; CALLS FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIRUT 002984

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE NEA/ELA FOR ABERCROMBIE-WINSTANLEY/WILLIAMS/DONICK
NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/MARCHESE/HARDING

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/14/2016
TAGS: PREL LE SY
SUBJECT: LEBANON: ELIE FERZLI BASHES HARIRI; CALLS FOR
NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

Classified By: Jeffrey D. Feltman, Ambassador. Reason 1.4 (b) and (d).

SUMMARY
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1. (C) During a September 5 lunch with the Ambassador and
poloff and a September 8 dinner with poloff and PolCouns,
former MP and Deputy Speaker of the Lebanese Chamber of
Deputies Elie Ferzli, a member of an anti-March 14 coalition,
said that the perception is that the U.S. is only backing one
team in Lebanon. Evidently bitter at having been snubbed by
Saad Hariri during negotiations over electoral lists in the
2005 parliamentary elections, Ferzli said the current
government cannot ensure peace and stability in Lebanon, and
that what is needed is a new national unity coalition.
Ferzli warned that Saad Hariri's ultimate aim is to create a
Wahhabist state in Lebanon. END SUMMARY.

NEED NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT
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2. (C) Ferzli, his faced heavily scarred courtesy of a 1987
Samir Ja'Ja' bombing, said that the USG has clearly thrown
its weight behind the March 14 grouping, while ignoring other
U.S. allies in Lebanon. Since the Siniora government is no
longer trusted by those in the minority, specifically
Hizballah, it is impossible to develop a national consensus
around disarming the militia. Ferzli, a member of an
opportunistic anti-March 14 coalition dubbed the "Lebanese
National Grouping" and headed by former lame duck Prime
Minister Omar Karameh, echoed recent calls by Michel Aoun and
Hassan Nasrallah claiming that the only way forward is the
formation a government of national unity which would draft a
new parliamentary electoral law and call for early elections.
Ferzli noted this new government would provide a "better
atmosphere" to ask Hizballah to surrender its weapons.
Interestingly, Ferzli said he would prefer that Siniora --
not Karameh -- head the national unity government.


3. (C) Deeply skeptical of Ferzli's plan, the Ambassador
asked why the Lebanese National Grouping, instead of
demanding Siniora's resignation, does not simply call for
President Emile Lahoud to step down, since this would
constitutionally provoke the formation of a new government
while satisfying a key March 14 desire. Caught off guard by
this straightforward formula, Ferzli said that the national
unity Cabinet must come first, and then Lahoud can be "kicked
out", before new parliamentary elections are called.

DEFENDING AOUN'S STRATEGY
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4. (C) Poking his finger repeately in air, Ferzli defended
Aoun's alliance with Hizballah, claiming that Saad Hariri and
Walid Jumblatt had treated Aoun shoddily upon his return to
Lebanon from exile in May 2005. Ferzli remarked that Hariri
and Jumblatt had also allied with Hizballah during the 2005
parliamentary elections, so it is not as though Aoun is
committing a sacrilege. The Ambassador pointed out that
Hariri and Jumblatt had once hoped to temper Hizballah by
bringing them into the government, but that the failure of
this strategy was exposed by Hizballah's unilateral decision
to go to war on July 12. The Ambassador told Ferzli that
Hizballah is using Aoun just to have Christian cover for
maintaining its weapons, and that now, instead of playing
politics and trying to undermine the Siniora government, the
Lebanese should all be pressuring Hizballah to surrender its
weapons and permit full state authority over Lebanon.

FEAR OF A SUNNI TAKEOVER
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5. (C) Clearly bearing a deep grudge against Hariri, who
left Ferzli off of his electoral list for the Greek Orthodox
seat in the West Biqa' in 2005, Ferzli accused Hariri of
seeking to weaken Hizballah in order to establish a
"fanatical Sunni" state in Lebanon modelled after Wahhabi
rule in Saudi Arabia (Note. This is a familiar refrain we
are hearing from those opposed to the Siniora government.
End Note). "Hariri has a Sunni project," Ferzli claimed,

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"His aim is to cancel the other potentials in Lebanon,
especially the Christians." The Sunna want to take power all
for themselves, cautioned Ferzli, and are using Christians
like Samir Ja'ja' and Amin Gemayel to achieve that aim,
whereas the Shi'a realize they cannot rule Lebanon alone.
The Ambassador questioned the assumption that Hizballah
thinks it requires interconfessional support, or whether it
is just using figures like Aoun, Karameh, Suleyman Frangieh
and Ferzli in order to maintain its weapons.

COMMENT
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6. (C) Ferzli's bitter, undisguised jealousy of the March
14 camp has blinded him with a desire to see their majority
government removed from power. We believe that a similar
impulse drives others in the pro-Syrian camp -- such as Omar
Karameh and Suleyman Frangieh -- who were swept aside by
March 14's inexorable ascent to power following the Syrian
withdrawal from Lebanon and cannot wait the four remaining
years until the next parliamentary elections. Their attempts
to dress up the concept of a national unity government in the
docile verbiage of "democracy" and "state-building" are
thoroughly transparent, and their claim that only they can
compel Hizballah disarmament is utterly unconvincing.
FELTMAN