Lebanon's sigh of relief was short-lived, but why, asks Hanady Salman Beirut had never been like this before. There was a big smile on the face of the city, and oxygen in its lungs. Not even on 25 June 2000, when the Israelis withdrew from South Lebanon; not even in August 2006, when they left defeated after their last bloody war. Not even then did the city shine like this. On Thursday 22 May 2008, people in the streets of Beirut were smiling. They were tossing "mabrouks" (congratulations) to each other. Driving, which is usually a race to hell in the streets of Beirut, became like ballet, with drivers each inviting the other to pass first! Relief -- a huge sense of relief; as if someone had removed a vast load that was about to crush your heart. And that was not because people had carefully read the terms of the deal. Not because some felt they won to the detriment of others. That euphoria was not due to anything the deal cut in Doha provided. It was mostly due to what Doha had helped avoid: civil war. For the first time in the past three years, the Lebanese felt they could now make plans for the near future at least. For three whole years, since Rafik Al-Hariri was killed 14 February 2005, no one in this country could predict what was going to happen the next day. On 22 May, people felt that the curse had maybe been broken, that they might enjoy some level of stability ... Anyone who tried to discuss the details of the deal, to put it in question, to ask difficult questions such as "How can they be shaking hands and kissing each other in Doha while the dead are not yet buried?" was quickly shut down. The mood was for relief, for believing it will work this time. Not that the Lebanese people are naïve, not that they don't know better, not that what was happening had already happened over and over again, ever since most of us were born. But people felt they had paid their dues, that they needed a break. People wanted to turn wishful thinking into reality. However, that was too much (euphoria) too soon. It did not even take weeks for them to wake up. Like that movie in which the main character keeps waking up on the same day, every single morning, without knowing how to break the chain. One day or two, was it, of long overdue happiness and relief? Was it something that had had happened on Sunday 25 May? On that day, Beirut was calm as it always is on Sundays; the flowers in the streets were more colourful than ever, the skies of the city and of the future were blue and clear. A president that everyone had said they wanted (and supported) was being elected in parliament, in an unprecedented session featuring high- level figures representing most Arab and Western countries. The streets that had been closed for years now for security reasons had been opened. The city was not as tight anymore; the city had more spaces to offer. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction ... Why then, on Monday, was Hassan Nasrallah angry in the speech he gave to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Lebanon's liberation? Instead of the expected calm tone and calls for reconciliation, he gave a speech in which warnings were sent in more than one direction. Why? No one yet has the answer. The next day, the 14 Marsh group went back to the "old" political discourse. Then they decided, after close consultations with Riyadh, to nominate Fouad Siniora to head the government, again. People were expecting Saad Hariri to be nominated as a sign of real partnership between the different parties. The nomination of Siniora was a signal in the wrong direction. On Wednesday, Damascus and Riyadh went back to mutual accusations, the Saudis and the emirates were attacking the Iranians. The Qataris, who had just got home after touring the region to thank all the parties concerned for making the Lebanon deal possible, are probably wondering today whether they were too fast in declaring that the region could sort out its own problems when given a chance to do so. So what is it that happened between Sunday 25 May at 5pm (the election of the president) and Monday 26 May at 6pm (Nasrallah's speech) that changed things so dramatically? What is it that made the French, who had warmly supported the Doha agreement, take a step back on Wednesday and suddenly decide it needed to be fine-tuned? Could it be that the 14th of Marchpeope gave the opposition in Doha what they had asked for, implying that they agree on a settlement, and then when they guaranteed the opposition was out of the streets, they went back to "business as usual", waiting to see how the Saudi-Syrian affair was going to develop. It goes without saying that the popular mood has completely shifted in Lebanon. On Monday evening and on Tuesday, there were clashes in the streets between Hizbullah supporters on the one hand and Hariri's on the other. It was as if we were back to square one. Back to where we had started. The flowers stop blooming, the smiles disappeared. It is clear today that the Lebanese people expected too much too soon. What more will it take? How many more years and how much more blood will it take before "the region" is ready to sort out its own problems? Meanwhile, the Lebanese political scene is back to its filthy, small details. Will there be at least a truce in the streets of this country?
