Scores of the Bush Doctrine. Not much time to blog on the recent agreement in Doha, Qatar. If I had written that the Ta'if accords merely postponed the next round of civil war, you can imagine what I would say about this lousy sectarian agreement. It can be clearly said that the opposition scored big in the agreement, and an Iranian analyst told AlJazeera that the new axis in the Middle East is the Iran-Syria-Qatar axis and not the Saudi axis. At that point he was interrupted. Qatar does not want to spoil its relations with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia and US will not like this agreement, and the opposition could not obtain those concessions prior to the armed actions in the streets. Saudi media are clearly not pleased, and opposition media are trying hard not to gloat. It is, like all other agreements in Lebanon, a sectarian agreement and deals with sectarian matters. The electoral law that they agreed on will ensure the prevention of the formation of national unity, as the electoral districts get smaller and smaller--that is what Patriarch Sfayr (who is touring the US to showcase his impressive hat collection)--always insisted on. The ultimate political question regarding who will hold the majority in the next parliament will be decided in one district or two: namely, the first district of Beirut. We don't know how `Awn standing will be then. This is where the worst part of the conflict is: the fact that both sides care about the promotion of their petty and electoral districts, and both sides are beneficiary of sectarianism. (See Khalid's piece here). I know it does not look likely now, but really don't be surprised if Hizbullah reaches an agreement with Hariri in the elections, and even with Jumblat. Sectarian groupings are always likely to bury the hatchet--literally in this case. True, the March 14 agreed on the candidacy of Sulayman, but he was early on a candidate of the opposition (and of Syria). And this Sulayman comes on the wake of the Lebanese Army's bias in favor of Hizbullah during the recent clashes in Beirut. So now Lebanon will gave a new government, and Bush will stop talking about "the democratically-elected" government of Lebanon because the new government will not have Sanyurah, and will have members of the opposition. Is anybody keeping scores for the Bush Doctrine? And one more time: this is the opportunity for the Left in Lebanon to stand up and assert a new path: neither with the sectarian majority or with the sectarian minority.