BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah-led protesters rallied on Friday at the doorstep of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to force the resignation of his U.S.-backed government.
"We want a clean government," one banner read. "Siniora out, we want a free, free government," the crowd chanted. Some set up tents to begin a sit-in on roads leading to the government headquarters.
Saad al-Hariri, a prominent anti-Syrian Sunni Muslim leader, said the protests would not bring down the government.
"No matter how long they stay in the street...this will not bring down the government of Fouad Siniora," he told Al Hurra television.
Hezbollah, Lebanon's most powerful Shi'ite Muslim group, and its pro-Syrian allies had called on Lebanese from across the country to take part in the protest in the capital Beirut, to be followed by the indefinite sit-in.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has branded the government a U.S. puppet.
"I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit," Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun said, to the cheers of protesters in central Beirut. Speaking on behalf of the opposition, Aoun demanded a national unity government.
A senior opposition source said supporters who had imposed a blockade on the government offices from where Siniora and most of his ministers were monitoring the protest, later eased it and opened a road to the complex after contacts between opposition leaders and Arab diplomats. Continued...
The Lebanese Opposition Continues Sit-In and Washinton Worried
The center of the Lebanese capital was still clogged with a large number of supporters of the Lebanese opposition who came in by the hundreds of thousands to demonstrate and to stage a sit-in, called by the leadership of the opposition with the goal of pressuring [the government] towards the formation of a unity government.
The sit-inners arrived from many regions of the country, the Lebanese media carrying only the response to the opposition demands. Calls demanding the fall of the government of President [of the ministers] Fouad Assanyoura were repeated. All of this was accompanied by a deployment of Lebanese Army and security forces.
The sit-inners had set up camp on the two streets leading to the "Government Saray", location of the office of the Lebanese Prime Minister. But Al-Jazeera correspondents reported that the opposition force had announced lifting the siege on the Saray which a number of ministers, in addition to Assanyoura, have been using as an office since the assassination of the Minister of Industry Bayar Aljameel last month.
The sit-in began with massive demonstrations in which hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters participated. "General" Michel Aoun, leader of the Free National Front, began the speeches criticizing the government, calling in his speech for the Lebanese government to resign for the good of the people, which he said had come out today to express their disgust with the government's performance.
Aoun said that the opposition front was not trying to topple the government with the goal of taking power itself. He added that the current government was trying to [stay illegitimately in] Lebanese political power, emphasizing that Assanyoura should resign so that there could come to replace him "another Sunni more able and knowledgable to represent the Lebanese people".
Aoun also said that the government had become unconstitutional and devoid of lawful [right], indicating that burning the constitution is an offense punishable in the courts. Aoun also launched an attack on unnamed television stations, saying that "[they have factionalist tendencies and offer factionalist views and encourage factionalism in Lebanon]".
Aoun concluded his speech by calling the demonstrators, who cheered wildly, to continue the sit-in, which he said would be open-ended, until the fall of the government of Assanyoura.
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From his side Waleed Junblaat, president of the Democratic [Party], said that the 14th of March team and the government will confront the opposition's decision to sit-in and demonstrate with complete calm.
He indicated that the current crisis in Lebanon will not be solved except through dialogue. He also renewed his rejection of what he described as Syrian-Iranian interference in Lebanon, indicating that arms were still coming into Lebanon through the Syrian border.
The American delegate to the United Nations, John Bolton, expressed the worry of the United States with regards to the demonstrations organized by the oppostion because they were part of what he described as a [sneaky] coup directed by Syria and Iran against the Lebanese government.
The Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov said that his country watched the situation in Lebanon with worry. In his interview with Al-Jazeera Ivanov also defended Russia's position of not participating in the peace-keeping forces in Lebanon.
From another side, the Mufti of Lebanon led Friday prayers in the Government Saray, reaffirming his support for the government of Assanyoura.
The Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Assanyoura reaffirmed his [oppostion] to the opposition, and said that it will not succeed in achieving its goal by taking refuge in the streets. He emphasized that opposition threats "will not [intimidate] his government, which will not be terrified by manuevers and threatening postures."
Assanyoura warned of what he called attempts to overthrow the democratic order of Lebanon and his lawful government. He affirmed that "Lebanon will not accept any scenario of [weakening public security or public and private institutions]." Assanyoura also rejected what he called the movement of Lebanon towards the thinking of many states within a state.
The Secretary General of Hezbollah Hasan Nasrollah gave a speech on Thursday calling for the start of peaceful protests to topple the government of Fu'ad Assanyoura which he described as deficient.
Personally I find all of this a little disturbing. It also seems kind of disingenous for Hezbollah to start a costly war with Israel all by themselves and then blame the Lebanese government for not helping them. Foreign influence is surely involved here.
I also found it interesting to see the differences between the articles from the two sources. Notice how Reuters blares "Hezbollah" in the headline, while Al-Jazeera refers to them as "opposition" demonstrators. The Reuters article leads with the demand that Assanyoura and his cabinet quit, whereas Al-Jazeera first mentions the opposition's desire to form a unity government. The Reuters article emphasizes anti-American comments and quotes, whereas the only mention of America in the Al-Jazeera article is John Bolton saying the US is worried.
For balance, some of these differences might be related to a tendency for western newswire articles to include more background information than Arab articles usually do.
The Reuters article also specifically identifies Aoud as Christian and Junblaat as Druze, while Al-Jazeera makes no specific mention of their religious affiliation. Middle Eastern readers would, of course, know that Michel Aoud was a Christian, because Michel is a Christian name.
This reminds me of the reporting on the coup-d'etat in Thailand, except that time it was the other way around. How many of you knew that the General who took over was a Muslim? This fact got absolutely no coverage (that I saw) in the Western press, but it was duly noted by Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya et al, this General being the first Muslim ever to hold power as the President of Thailand.
