The vote for Suleiman could result in a diplomatic breakthrough between Syria and Lebanon. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, sitting next to his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, was the first Damascus official to visit Lebanon since his country's troops were forced to vacate under international pressure in 2005.
Lebanese of all political and religious stripes praised Suleiman's rise. Giant portraits of the popular general loomed over squares in Christian as well as Muslim quarters in cities and the countryside. Since the deal in Qatar, share prices for Solidere, the firm that developed the city's elegant downtown, have jumped 30% while black-market prices for weapons have collapsed.
"It's like a big dream come true," said Antonie Lahoud, deputy mayor of the coastal town of Amchit, Suleiman's birthplace. "It's a wedding ceremony for Lebanon."
The upbeat mood was a stunning contrast to the gloomy national sentiment less than a week ago, after Hezbollah's takeover set off political and sectarian clashes that pushed the country toward civil war. Six days of talks in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar ultimately produced Wednesday's agreement, in what many analysts described as a defeat for forces friendly to the U.S.
Under Lebanon's power-sharing system, a Christian serves as president while a Sunni serves as the more powerful prime minister and a Shiite as head of parliament. Suleiman must now confer with parliament to appoint a Cabinet that will last until parliamentary elections next year.
The agreement swept under the rug what many analysts consider the underlying causes of Lebanon's strife, including a rising Shiite population with increasing political clout. It also failed to mention Hezbollah's status as an armed political force sometimes overshadowing the power of the Lebanese state in its stated mission to confront Israeli and U.S. supremacy over the region.
Suleiman is from a prominent Christian family that has produced powerful officials, including an ambassador and a governor.
In the army, Suleiman served as a field commander who managed to refrain from taking sides in Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. He earned plaudits for holding the army together as it defeated Al Qaeda-inspired rebels in northern Lebanon last summer.
But Suleiman was also widely criticized by pro-government politicians for failing to confront Hezbollah during its recent offensive. And March 14 supporters, despite their apparent enthusiasm, whisper that he may be too close to Syria, which dominated Lebanon's domestic politics until 2005. He has frequently adopted the rhetoric of Hezbollah in describing the importance of Lebanon's "resistance" to Israel.
Still, Suleiman has displayed flashes of independence. He revived the practice of sending officers to the U.S. and Europe for advanced training instead of to Syria. And he refused to crush the 2005 demonstrations that hastened the withdrawal of Syrian forces.
"We say that every person is a child of his environment," said Bahjat Lahoud, a cousin of Suleiman and a retired diplomat. "Amchit was never a sectarian town. It was never a part of Lebanon's wars."
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daragahi@latimes.com
