BEIRUT, 4 December 2006 — Tens of thousands of pro-Syrian protesters pressed on with a sit-in aimed at ousting Lebanon’s Western-backed government yesterday as the country’s political crisis showed no sign of easing.

Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition, including some Christians, held a third day of protests at a tent city in central Beirut, within earshot of the office-turned-residence of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

“Our one and only demand is a government of national unity,” senior pro-Syrian Christian opposition figure Suleiman Franjieh told a jubilant crowd massed at Beirut’s Riad Al-Solh square. “We will stay in this square... we will not leave until this illegal and unconstitutional government goes,” he said.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa arrived in Beirut to meet Lebanese officials, expressing concern and saying Arab countries could not afford to be bystanders in a crisis that developed after Hezbollah’s summer war with Israel.

“The stability of Lebanon and moving toward a solution that would bring about a sure future for the country is one of our concerns,” Moussa said. “All of us are worried about the situation in Lebanon.”

Although the dispute started out over political differences, it is moving closer to a sectarian crisis as tension between Sunnis and Shiites is high and there is ill feeling among Christians who are divided between the rival camps.

In a sign the protests could disintegrate into violence, a van carrying protesters was stoned as it drove through the Sunni Qasqas neighborhood of Beirut, security sources said.

The army broke up the crowd, but not before the passengers left the vehicle and chased some stone throwers, smashing a few cars. Four passengers were injured.

Government supporters, who held their own mass funeral procession for an assassinated anti-Syrian Cabinet minister 12 days ago, stayed away from central Beirut, heeding calls by leaders to avoid street confrontations.

“We will be steadfast, peaceful and democratic. We are here and when they are convinced that there is no solution except through dialogue, then they are welcome,” said anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Despite the city center’s paralyzed streets, a previously scheduled Beirut Marathon, held under the motto “For the Love of Lebanon,” went ahead with runners using suburban roads to skirt the demonstration.

The opposition led by Hezbollah has been demanding effective veto power in the government, whose majority comprises anti-Syrian politicians from Christian, Sunni and Druze parties. But these politicians say the opposition only wants to weaken the government and derail a UN tribunal that would try suspects in the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A preliminary UN inquiry has implicated Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the killing, which led to Syrian forces being forced to withdraw from Lebanon last year.

Six opposition ministers resigned from the Cabinet last month after unity talks collapsed. But the depleted government approved plans for the tribunal, sparking the latest protests.

In Syria’s first official reaction to the protests, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad backed the opposition’s campaign to bring down the Lebanese government. “Syria supports the Lebanese people and its national forces who confronted the Israeli aggression with heroism,” he said, referring to the summer war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.

Meqdad, quoted by the government daily Tishrin, stressed “the importance of respecting the choice of the Lebanese people to establish a government of national unity as demanded by the mass demonstrations” in Beirut.

The Syrian press also threw its weight behind the protests. “The sit-in will continue until the birth of a New Lebanon,” read the main headline in Al-Baath, the ruling party’s daily.

Tishrin said “the team which holds power in Lebanon is falsifying the truth... by pretending there is a dispute over the international tribunal” to try suspects in the murder of Hariri.

Meanwhile, Israel yesterday authorized UN troops to deploy in the Lebanese part of the divided border village of Ghajar, completing its pullout from Lebanon after the war, a senior government official said.

The influential Security Cabinet “adopted an... agreement on the status of Ghajar under which UNIFIL forces control the northern part of the village and Israel controls the southern part,” a senior government official said.

Israeli troops had remained in northern Ghajar, a village that straddles the border between the two countries, after all other Israeli forces pulled out of Lebanon on Oct. 1 following the war. Ghajar has been divided between Israel and Lebanon since May 2000, when the Jewish state withdrew from its northern neighbor — an arrangement not recognized by Beirut.

The Israelis hope that a final agreement on Ghajar would be reached within months, the official said. “This is a temporary solution until a permanent resolution of the issue of Ghajar is reached,” the government official said. “This will be in a matter of months, not years.”

Israeli officials warned yesterday that the fall of the Lebanese government could lead to the establishment of an Iranian proxy state on Israel’s northern border and increase the probability of war between the two nations.