Pro-Syrian Premier Returns in Lebanon

Opposition Asked To Join Government

Omar Karami resigned in face of protests.

AMMAN, Jordan, March 10 -- Ten days after the Lebanese opposition celebrated his resignation, pro-Syrian legislator Omar Karami returned as prime minister Thursday in a sign of how swiftly the political winds have shifted after weeks of street demonstrations arising from Syria's long-standing military presence in Lebanon.

But in returning to the post for the third time, Karami suggested he would not form a new government unless opposition legislators agreed to play a role in his cabinet. His announcement represented a conciliatory gesture toward the opposition, which had celebrated Karami's abrupt departure as the most notable achievement of its more than three-week uprising against the country's pro-Syrian political leadership.

"The difficulties we all know cannot be confronted without a government of national unity and salvation," Karami said during a news conference following his reappointment in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. "We will extend our hand and wait for the other side."

Karami's position appeared to serve as a challenge to opposition leaders, who are focusing on how to ensure fair parliamentary elections in the spring that could usher in a government less aligned with Syria. But it appeared Thursday that the opposition was uniformly against joining Karami's government; several members said they doubted it would ever be formed. Opposition leaders had called for a "neutral government" to manage the country through the elections, which must be held before the end of May.

Although conciliatory at times, Karami made clear that the political momentum had shifted since he resigned Feb. 28. Karami stepped aside after a heated no-confidence debate in parliament and hours of raucous protests in Martyrs' Square marking the two-week anniversary of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri's assassination. But the enormous pro-Syrian rally in central Beirut on Tuesday had "shown that we are in the majority," Karami said during the news conference.

"It was a massive demonstration that asserted our legitimacy in the Lebanese street," Karami said.

The rally, organized by the militant Shiite Muslim party Hezbollah, dwarfed the opposition demonstrations. More than a dozen other pro-Syrian groups took part, and regional demonstrations are scheduled this weekend in cities in the north and south.

Hezbollah maintains a vast social services network, as well as an armed wing of roughly 20,000 guerrillas along Lebanon's southern border -- the only militia left from Lebanon's 15-year sectarian civil war.

In a nonbinding vote, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly Thursday to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The vote could lead to restrictions against the group, if European Union ministers follow the Parliament's recommendation. The Bush administration considers the party and its satellite television channel terrorist groups.

Karami received a clear endorsement from Lebanon's pro-Syrian parliament on Wednesday, and President Emile Lahoud asked him on Thursday to form a government. "If there is no national unity government, and if I am the obstacle, then I am ready to bow out," Karami said.

The opposition alliance of Christian, Druze and Sunni Muslim parties must weigh whether to join the government until the parliamentary elections or hold out until its political demands are met.

Opposition leaders have said Syria's 14,000 to 15,000 troops in Lebanon and its intelligence services, which many members of the opposition blame for Hariri's death, must leave the country before the elections. Syrian troops have begun to pull back to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon in recent days, but no timeline has been set for the next phase of their retreat to the border. The U.N. Security Council has also demanded Syria's immediate withdrawal.

A member of Hariri's parliamentary bloc, Nabil de Freige, said the opposition would not consider joining Karami's government until its demands were met. "From the moment he resigned, I knew he would be redesignated prime minister because it is exactly the way this military government has responded to the opposition," de Freige said. "What this government doesn't understand is that it's nonsense to go against the way of the world right now. We want a democratic regime in Lebanon."