Welcomed by a 21-gun salute and a military band, Michel Suleiman, Lebanon’s new President, took up residence Monday in the modern concrete-and-glass presidential palace set among the hilly suburbs of Beirut.
His election a day earlier promised an end to 19 months of grave political crisis, assassinations and sectarian street battles that brought this tiny Mediterranean state to the brink of civil war. It also marks a new chapter in Lebanon’s tortured history, one in which the Iran-backed militant group Hizballah is now recognized as the country’s dominant political and military force — at Washington’s expense. Proof of that was quick in coming: Suleiman’s first official meeting as Lebanon’s head of state was scheduled to be with Manuchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister of Iran.
Most Lebanese are breathing a sigh of relief that civil war was averted after the violent clashes of two weeks ago, but Suleiman faces some unenviable challenges in the weeks and months ahead to preserve that peace and stability. Suleiman, 59, is the 12th president of Lebanon and a Maronite Christian, like all his predecessors, due to a sectarian power-sharing formula devised in 1943 when Lebanon gained independence. Since 1989, when the formula was adjusted, the President in Lebanon does not hold executive power — that authority belongs to the Prime Minister — but Suleiman stands to play an influential role as a conciliator between the country’s rival political factions.
“He will be a crisis manager, not a crisis resolver,” says Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Middle East Center in Beirut. Prior to his election as President, Suleiman was commander of the Lebanese army, an appointment he was accorded in 1998 under the auspices of Syria, which then dominated Lebanon. Since Syria disengaged from Lebanon in April 2005 following mass street protests, Suleiman has steered an even course amid feuding Lebanese factions. His priority has been to preserve the integrity of the Lebanese army, widely regarded as almost the only functioning state institution. Suleiman’s profile rose considerably last summer when the army engaged in a bloody three-month battle against the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam faction in north Lebanon. But during the recent street battles in Beirut, Suleiman studiously avoided deploying the army against the warring parties, worried that the military could unravel along sectarian lines.
As President, Suleiman is expected to maintain the pliant role as a “cushion rather than a decisive player” to prevent the country from “exploding or falling apart,” says Salem.
Topping the list of challenges facing Suleiman is the fate of Hizballah’s arms — more pressing than ever after the Shi’ite group smashed the 19-month deadlock and routed its rivals with the stunning military seizure of west Beirut on May 9. The group’s success on the ground is mirrored in the Doha agreement, hammered out in Qatar last week. In the deal, Lebanon’s bickering leaders agreed to elect Suleiman, settled on an electoral law for next year’s parliamentary elections, and formed a new government of national unity that grants the Hizballah-led opposition its long-sought demand of a veto-wielding third share of cabinet seats. That means the opposition can block any legislation it doesn’t like, making it even less likely that various United Nations resolutions calling for disarming Hizballah will be heeded.
In his inaugural address on Sunday, Suleiman said that Lebanon required a strong national defense strategy incorporating the “capabilities of the resistance” alongside the Lebanese army to confront “Israeli aggression.” Hizballah’s domestic opponents in the so-called “March 14 coalition” will press hard to limit the Shi’ite party’s ability to use its weapons. But they have little leverage against a Hizballah that has proven it will fight to prevent being disarmed.
“This is a very complicated process,” says Timur Goksel, a Beirut-based university lecturer and long-time observer of Hizballah. “Suleiman is a cool-headed man and he knows his limitations. I don’t think he will rush into anything.”
Among the foreign and Arab dignitaries attending Suleiman’s election in the Lebanese parliament was Walid Muallem, Syria’s foreign minister. It was the first official visit to Beirut by a senior Syrian official since 2005, signaling the possibility of a rapprochement between Damascus and the new government in Beirut.
Syria is still considered the chief suspect in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former Prime Minister who was killed in a truck bomb explosion in February 2005. An international tribunal is being established to try Hariri’s killers and the perpetrators of several other assassinations since then. Syria has denied involvement in the deaths and argues that the tribunal is nothing more than a political weapon wielded by the U.S. Still, few doubt that fences need to be mended between Lebanon and Syria, however difficult that may prove: in their 60 or so years of independent existence, the two neighbors have never formally demarcated their joint border nor exchanged diplomatic representatives.
So as the pomp and circumstance of his inauguration fade, President Suleiman faces a daunting barrage of political obstacles if he is to keep his beleaguered country peaceful, independent and intact.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- Behind the Scenes of The White Lotus Season Three
- How Trump 2.0 Is Already Sowing Confusion
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- We’re Lucky to Have Been Alive in the Age of David Lynch
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Column: All Those Presidential Pardons Give Mercy a Bad Name
Contact us at letters@time.com