BEIRUT, 9 December 2006 — A Lebanese Sunni led thousands of anti-government Shiite demonstrators in prayers yesterday in a show of Muslim unity designed to dispel fears of sectarian strife.
Opposition parties, spearheaded by Hezbollah, have besieged government headquarters for the past week to try to topple the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who draws support from the Sunni community.
The city-center protest has heightened tension between the two communities, but Fathi Yakan, who leads a small pro-opposition Sunni group, urged national unity. “This mass protest is not for Shiites or for Sunnis or any other community. It is for all of Lebanon,” he said, accusing the government of being an agent of the United States.
“Fellow Lebanese, Sunnis and Shiites, Druze and Christians, beware and then beware of sliding toward the hell of strife,” he said, his words echoing around downtown Beirut which still bears the scars of the 1975-90 civil war.
On the other side of the Lebanese political divide, the Sunni spiritual leader backed by the US-supported government warned that Hezbollah’s demands won’t be met. “Bringing down the government and its prime minister in the street is a red line that we will never allow,” Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Kabbani told worshippers at a downtown mosque.
Shiite parties withdrew their ministers from the Cabinet last month and have called for the formation of a government of national unity following the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters earlier this year.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah addressed the protesters on Thursday and accused members of the anti-Syrian majority coalition of conniving to get Israel to attack Lebanon in July to crush his organization.
He alleged Siniora had tried to get the Lebanese Army to cut supply routes to his fighters during the war. The army denied this yesterday.
Siniora denied accusations of collaborating with the Israelis, an incendiary charge in the Arab world, and told cheering supporters that Nasrallah was threatening a coup.
“Nasrallah was not successful in his speech last night... He is trying to stage a coup,” Siniora said.
Siniora and his ministers are holed up in the government headquarters, fearing for their lives after the assassination last month of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.
If two more ministers resign or die, the government will automatically fall.
Leaders in neighboring countries have thrown their weight behind Siniora in recent days.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told French television yesterday that the opposition was not being reasonable. “There is also the risk of outside interference in these demonstrations. That can lead to very serious confrontations and even lead to the destruction of Lebanon,” he said. “The solution can only come through negotiations. Confrontation and demonstrations take us back to the 1970s,” Mubarak told France 3 television.
