The first mine is the “ neutral" minister.

According to the proposed agreement the government will be made up of 30 seats. 19 of these will be for the parliament majority , 10 will be for the opposition and one will be neutral.

The challenge is to find that neutral minister to fill this position.

If he (the neutral minister) sides with the opposition then he could torpedo any decision the government may want to take , that does not suit the opposition. In other words he will have a veto power over all decisions .

Hezbollah has been insisting on having the neutral minister sympathetic to them. Siniora tried this road before when he appointed Foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh , who was supposed to be neutral but soon he turned against the government when it became a matter of Shiaa versus Lebanon issue.

Salloukh quit along with all the other Shiaa ministers when the issue of the International Hariri tribunal was going to be discussed by the cabinet.

The solution therefore is an absolutely neutral minister. God help Siniora find this fellow !

The second mine is the International Hariri tribunal , what Ismail called a thorny issue.
This is perhaps the biggest mine, because it concerns the main ally of the opposition and that is Syria. Under no circumstances Syria wants this tribunal to go through for obvious reasons. After all Syria is the main suspect in the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri and its allies in Lebanon know this and want to protect it at any cost.

Hezbollah and General Aoun have both declared their support for the tribunal but want to modify the details to suit Syria ...something the March 14th alliance will not allow them to do.

The solution here may lie with the security council. According to former UN secretary General Kofi Annan , the UNSC may be able to go ahead and vote on the tribunal without the approval of Lebanon's president.

The third mine is the Donor's meeting in Paris …what as been referred to as Paris III The pro-Syrian alliance view this conference as pro western initiative, even though it will be a great boost to Lebanon’s economy.

The Donor's meeting in Paris is scheduled for January 25

The fourth mine is the presidential elections . The pro-Syrian opposition wants a president that is friendly to Syria , someone similar to Lahoud. Aoun has been trying very hard to become the next president by aligning himself with the pro-Syrian allies, but the March 14 alliance view Aoun as another unstable general willing to give up on all his principals just to become a president. ...Aoun they say has taken a 180 degree U turn since he has been in exile in Paris.

The solution lies with the parliament in electing a new president that is first and foremost Lebanese... whose only allegiance is to Lebanon. The March 14 alliance has the votes required to elect the president and if the Speaker does not convene the parliament the deputy Speaker should be able to under the constitution.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has wrapped up the second phase of his mediation with pro- and anti-government factions, vowing to continue his efforts after the Christmas, New Year and Adha holidays.

The question is will Moussa be able to demine the road map before an explosion takes place? Only time will tell

By Sami Y Haddad
Ya Libnan Volunteer