Another Middle East Crisis: Lebanon

[Zkribbler]

From ABC News
BEIRUT, Lebanon, December 2, 2006 - Thousands of Hezbollah supporters set up camp in the heart of Beirut on Saturday, starting an open-ended sit-in with a carnival atmosphere intended to pressure the U.S.-backed government of Fuad Saniora into resigning.

terrific....just terrific

[GePap]

The Hezbollah protests have been peaceful, and will probably remain so. NO one in Lebanon is really ready for violence currently.

The real test lie in what President Lahoud and Speaker Berri do. The Siniora government passed the law creating the special court to investigate the Hariri murder, but the UN stated the court must meet the requirements of the Constitution in Lebanon. That means that the Cabint must approve it (done), the Parliment must vote on it (Berri is the head of the Amal movement, a large Shiite party and nominally allied with Hezbollah) AND president Lahoud must approve it.

Berri might let it go to a vote, though the Shiite and Aoun Christian legislators might walk out, creating an even deeper government crisis, but I doubt Lahoud would ever go along, and he is in power till next year.

[VetLegion]

Why was everyone enthusiastic about popular protests against Syria, but now nobody is enthusiastic about popular protests for Syria? Do I notice an anti-Syria bias?

[dannubis]

And as long as they don't behave like wild animals they have every right to protest. It is for the local governement to get out of the impasse.

[Drake Tungsten]

The Hezbollah protests have been peaceful, and will probably remain so. NO one in Lebanon is really ready for violence currently.

A young man was killed and three other people were wounded Sunday in two separate street fights in Beirut between opposition and government supporters, as army troops and security forces were swiftly beefed up to prevent further escalation.
Security sources identified the killed man as Ali Ahmed Mahmoud, a 20-year-old Shiite, who died of his wounds.

They said four other people were wounded in the clashes which took place in the densely-populated Tarik Jedideh neighborhood and on the Badaro-Qasqas highway.

Shiite supporters from the southern suburbs trying to infiltrate into Tarik Jedideh, a low-income predominantly Sunni quarter, clashed with pro-government supporters with stones, sticks and knives, witnesses told Naharnet.

They said sporadic bursts of automatic gunfire could be heard in the confrontation which lasted about 45 minutes before army troops and police patrols stepped in to disengage the opponents.

The army threw a security dragnet in Tarik Jedideh in an effort to prevent followers of the pro-Syrian Hizbullah and Amal movement from stirring up trouble in the Sunni neighborhood.

Another confrontation was reported on the Badaro-Qasqas highway between supporters of Hizbullah and Amal on the one side, and others from the Lebanese Forces, the Christian faction led by Samir Geagea.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&A2A9ED97879D4816422572390064437D