Beirut – Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies launched a long- threatened campaign to force Lebanon’s U.S.-backed government from office, calling for mass demonstrations today followed by a wave of open-ended protests.
A defiant Prime Minister Fouad Siniora vowed his government would not fall, warning in a nationally televised speech Thursday night that “Lebanon’s independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger.”
The call for protests threatens to turn a political power struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian factions into a violent showdown in sharply divided Lebanon. Government supporters accuse Syria of being behind the Hezbollah campaign, trying to regain its lost influence in its smaller neighbor. Hezbollah and its allies, in turn, say the country has fallen under U.S. domination and that they have lost their rightful portion of power.
Hezbollah threatened to call mass demonstrations unless it and its allies obtain a veto-wielding share of the Cabinet. Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, called for the protests to be peaceful.
The United States has made Lebanon a key front in its attempts to rein in Syria and its ally, regional powerhouse Iran. President Bush warned earlier this week that the two countries were trying to destabilize Lebanon.
