The first hundred days for the lifespan of any covenant or government, is a grace period given to it before anyone holds it accountable.
This situation does not apply to the third Mikati government, as the grace period ended from the moment the Minister of Culture has beaten his hand on the Cabinet’s table, requesting the dismissal of the Judicial Investigator into the Beirut Port explosion case, Judge Tarek Bitar. From that moment on, the grace period was shortened to a month, and there were no more forgivers.
The mines that exploded in the face of Mikati’s government were caused by the fact that this government went without a road map or without “a map of the places where mines were planted.” It was like walking blindfolded, relying on the facilitation of Hezbollah and a green light from the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, who found in Mikati’s government the last opportunity to pass more than sixty appointments to positions and jobs in the first category.
But the winds of the allies did not blow as the ships of the Mikati government desired.
Hezbollah and the Amal movement’s interests were “above all Mikati’s considerations.”
Hezbollah is working on the steadfastness of its allies so that they do not concede to Mikati and those behind him mainly the Western countries. Among the factors of Hezbollah’s “resilience” are:
Sajid’s ration card, Iranian diesel, and the payment of the salaries of its cadres in US dollars.
Thus, in “biting fingers” game, Hezbollah is superior to President Mikati: He prevents him from resigning, and from holding cabinet sessions, even if the dollar exchange reaches 30,000 LBP, and even if three-quarters of the Lebanese are below the poverty line.
It is better for PM Mikati to turn the tables on everyone’s heads, after all the attempts he made, which Hezbollah has proven capable of disrupting one by one:
He visited Paris and met President Emmanuel Macron. He visited Egypt and met with President Sisi and the Secretary-General of the Arab League. He visited Jordan and met King Abdullah II. He visited the Vatican and met Pope Francis II.
He made more than one Arab and international contact. But he did not lower a finger that was raised to prevent the call for a session of the Council of Ministers. Accordingly, neither a hundred days of grace is beneficial, nor a thousand days.
The huge mistake that Prime Minister Najib Mikati made was his delusion that Hezbollah would facilitate his task for free, as if Mikati did not know Hezbollah, and he was the one who cooperated with the party in his two previous governments.
Perhaps he should have realized that the party has nothing for free, so should Mikati pay the cost? Or he will let the Lebanese people bear it, as is the case today? The cost will be a further deterioration and collapse at all levels?