Beirut – Lebanon’s political crisis deepened Tuesday with U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora fighting to save his government and the leader of the powerful Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah predicting its collapse.
“The government will go,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah told supporters, according to an account published Tuesday in a Lebanese newspaper.
The Bush administration last year hailed Lebanon’s “Cedar Revolution” as evidence that democracy was on the march in the Arab world.
The Saniora government’s collapse would confound U.S. efforts to isolate and weaken Iran and Syria, Hezbollah’s main international supporters.
Six Cabinet ministers allied with Hezbollah quit over the weekend after Saniora refused to change the makeup of his government to give more seats to Shiite Muslim and pro-Syria factions. The change would have given those groups veto power over government proposals.
The remaining ministers met in emergency session on Tuesday, pledging to hang together and anxiously awaiting the return from Iran of Lebanese Shiite leader Nabih Berri, who often acts as an intermediary between Hezbollah and pro-government forces.
Several Lebanese officials said they hoped that Berri could help start a round of talks before the fight moves to the streets. Both sides are threatening to call for dueling rallies later this week.
Saniora came to power at the head of the anti-Syrian March 14 movement in elections more than a year ago, but his grasp on Lebanon has been slipping since last summer, when Israel, with U.S. support, pummeled Lebanon after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
