Lebanon’s President Supports Government of Experts to End Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Thursday he supported the creation of a government of experts to lead the country out of crisis and pledged to dedicate the rest of his term to ending a sectarian power-sharing system he called a “destructive disease.”

In a televised address, Aoun said previous governments dominated by political parties were stymied by divisions and had failed to meet the aspirations of the public.

He stopped short of setting a date for binding parliamentary consultations to name a new prime minister, however, after Saad Hariri stepped down in the face of two weeks of nationwide protests that have engulfed the country.

“I pledge today to exert all efforts to build a modern, civil state and uproot sectarianism, which is the weakest link of our community and nation, and the first step toward that is a civil status law,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters who've taken to the streets in recent weeks have demanded the ouster of an entire political class they blame for endemic corruption and economic mismanagement, calling for a smaller cabinet comprised of technocrats who can lead the country to early elections. As the protests have gained traction, so have calls to end a quota system that divides political posts up among the country's myriad Christian, Muslim and other sects.

The stakes are high for Lebanon, which straddles the region's geopolitical fault lines and has often been a proxy battleground for the Middle East's broader conflicts. The 15-year civil war ended in 1990 but still haunts a country where sectarian warlords became the rulers and have remained in power ever since. It is this political class that protesters accuse of entrenched corruption that has brought the economy to the brink of crisis.

A Saudi-brokered deal to end the war envisaged that the sectarian quota system would be phased out within a few years but efforts to end it have faced opposition over the past three decades from religious and political leaders concerned their communities would lose influence without such protections.

Aoun said the transition should begin with a new personal status law in which all Lebanese are treated equally. Under the current arrangement, matters of marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance are decided by various religious courts and authorities, not the state.

On the streets, protesters and activists welcomed the overall spirit of Aoun's pledges but said they lacked detail, while he presented no mechanism for implementation.

“Sectarianism is a destructive disease, Aoun said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lin Noueihed in Beirut at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net;Dana Khraiche in Beirut at dkhraiche@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net