Mabrouk lal 3imad Slibnen. Asdi Sleimen. La Libnen.

Compared to the fiery, bombastic, retrospectively worthless speech that tripped over our infamous half-tongued, half-brained, half-principled, former half-president's tongue, what I heard from Michel Sleimen was an almost refreshingly down to earth spiel about a highly complex forthcoming mandate.

But as far as I'm concerned, and until words materialize into an altered political reality, a spiel is all it is and all it will be. This "consensus" president, the choosing of whom is a slap in the face of all democratic and constitutional principles, has a largely titular authority. All he can do is obstruct the issuing of decrees, for a mere fifteen days, and then watch them as they gracefully return to the Cabinet to get issued with or without the President's generous approval.

So, in all optimism, the recent resolution is two stitches on a wound over an abscess, and General Sleimen, well-suited and good-intentioned as he may be, is incapable of occasioning any significant change. He may be an arbiter, but a ruler is not what he is allowed, or likely to become.

Brings back Raymond Edde's words in the years following Taef, when asked in an interview whether he would want to be president. "No thank you" he retorted, "I do not want to be an office clerk".