Earlier Saturday, Lebanon’s President Michel Suleiman named Saad Hariri his country’s new prime minister. Hariri’s liberal democratic party won the elections for Parliament earlier this month: it occupies 71 of the 128 seats. The remaining seats went to extremist, nay terrorist, organization Hizbullah.

Although it is certainly bad news that Hizbullah has become so big in Lebanon, it could have been worse. Many feared that Hizbullah would win. Luckily, this was not the case.

Saad Hariri is the son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated by Syria. He succeeds Fuad Siniora, his political ally.

Hariri’s party is (relatively) pro-Western, pro-peace, pro-human rights, and pro-freedom. Like his father before him, these are also Hariri’s main characteristics.

The question now is whether he will be able to unite the Lebanese people, while taking on Hizbullah and Syrian influence in the extremely dvided Lebanon at the same time nonetheless. His father tried as well, but ended up dead. You have to wonder whether Hizbullah and Syria will try to do to Saad what they did to Rafik.