LEBANON: Lebanese prime minister Siniora and Hezbollah leader Nassrallah blame each other for fuelling sectarian strife

A Lebanese Sunni preacher led thousands of anti-government Shi'ite and Sunni protesters in Friday (December 8) prayers at a tent camp in central Beirut in a show of Muslim unity. The Hezbollah-led opposition is pushing a protest campaign to topple the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora despite fears of sectarian strife. Shi'ite Hezbollah is the most powerful force in the opposition while Siniora is a Sunni and his main backer, parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri, is also a Sunni. Preacher Fathi Yakan, who leads a small pro-opposition Sunni group, led the noon prayers. Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged supporters on Thursday (December 7) to attend the sermon to display Muslim unity. "This crowd has never been seen before, it is a crowd with no limits, and I say in all honesty that this crowd can not only continue for a week or a month, but year after year until we topple the American programme just like we toppled the Zionist programme," preacher Fathi Yakan told protesters. Nasrallah vowed to pursue his demand for a government of national unity and told Siniora to agree swiftly or face the prospect of new opposition demands for a transitional administration leading to early parliamentary elections. In a scathing attack, Nasrallah accused members of the anti-Syrian majority coalition of lobbying Washington to get Israel to attack on Lebanon last July to crush Hezbollah. He also said Siniora had tried to get the Lebanese army to cut supply routes to his fighters during the 34-day war. Government sources denied the accusations. According to Ahmad Rashid Qabani, a prominent Sunni cleric who supports Siniora, said that any attempt to topple the government is a line which should not be crossed. "We consider, and let everyone listen, that toppling prime minister Fouad Siniora and his government in the street is a red line, a red line we would not allow to be crossed, let everyone go back to constitutional institutions for democratic and political work is there, not in the street," Qabani said. The opposition, which includes a Christian party, has paralysed the heart of Beirut for a week in an around-the-clock anti-government protest that shows no sign of fading. Speaking in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday urged all sides to resume negotiations. Separately, Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora criticised Hezbollah leader and said that what they saw in Sayyed Hassan Nassrallah's televised speech is unjustified anger. Government and opposition delegations met with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir separately today to discuss the crisis. Mohammad Raed, head of Hezbollah parliamentary bloc blamed the government for what is happening in Beirut's streets. "What is going on in the street is an action which the state pushed for through closing all doors and ways in front of a dialogue which would reap political results," Raed said. Some commentators have said the tense political stand-off could degenerate into widescale violence in a country that has suffered two civil wars in the past 50 years. The protests have already ignited several sectarian clashes between Shi'ites and Sunnis in Beirut, with one Shi'ite demonstrator shot dead in a Sunni neighbourhood last Sunday. Siniora allies say their opponents are looking to derail plans to set up an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which many Lebanese blame on Syria, a charge Damascus denies. The army, which has around 45,000 soldiers and officers, split along sectarian lines in the 1975-1990 civil war.

ITN Source | December 8, 2006

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