BEIRUT, 2 December 2006 — Hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah-led protesters rallied yesterday at the doorstep of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to force the resignation of his US-backed government.
“We want a clean government,” one banner read. “Siniora out, we want a free, free government,” the crowd chanted.
Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful Shiite group, and its pro-Syrian allies had called on Lebanese from across the country to take part in the protest in the capital Beirut, to be followed by an indefinite sit-in near the government offices. Hezbollah has branded the government a US puppet.
“I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit,” Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun said to the cheers of protesters in downtown Beirut. Speaking on behalf of the opposition, Aoun demanded a national unity government.
A senior opposition source said the protesters were imposing an open-ended blockade to the government offices where Siniora and most of his ministers were holed up.
“Tents are being put up for protesters to encircle the government’s headquarters to stop movements to and from it until Siniora falls,” the source said.
Large numbers of security forces, backed by armored troop carriers, were deployed. Scores of soldiers, using barbed wire and metal barriers, cordoned off the complex housing the government’s offices in downtown Beirut.
Siniora and many ministers were inside while meters away, the crowds massed, waving red-and-white Lebanese flags under banners demanding a government of national unity.
Sources close to the organizers estimated the crowd at more than one million, and Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Kassem said before the protests the campaign would continue until Siniora’s Cabinet fell.
“This government will not take Lebanon to the abyss. We have several steps if this government does not respond but I tell them you will not be able to rule Lebanon with an American administration,” he told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah talked to Siniora by telephone and discussed the situation in Lebanon and other regional and international developments, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
In a telephone call from New Delhi to Siniora, King Abdallah of Jordan urged Lebanese to remain united. He said he hoped “the disagreements between the various political factions will not affect the unity of Lebanese society,” the Petra news agency said.
Late at night, protesters eased their blockade, opening up some access roads after a flurry of diplomatic activity, a government source said. “Two of the three access roads to the Grand Serail have been cleared after contacts” with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the army, the source said.
Hezbollah has been at loggerheads with Siniora’s government over what it says was its failure to back the group during the July-August war with Israel. “The government was negligent during the war. That’s why we want a national unity government,” said resident Ali Aboud. “We’re here to bring down the government. We, the resistance, don’t want any influence from the United States,” opposition supporter Najwa Bouhamdan, 41, said.
France’s socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal meanwhile urged Lebanon’s political factions to return to dialogue. “Time is of the essence — at any moment things could fall over the edge,” Royal said after her arrival on Thursday night.
Despite suggestions she should cancel her trip, she went ahead on her Beirut visit as part of a Middle East tour “so that no one can say Lebanon is on the verge of civil war.”
Royal visited the UN Forces in Lebanon headquarters in Naqura, in southern Lebanon, traveling in a helicopter in order to be able to return quickly to the capital for talks with political leaders. She said there was a “critical” need for an international conference on Lebanon to be held quickly.
An international meeting is scheduled for Jan. 25 to focus on reconstruction in the country devastated by this year’s Israeli offensive launched after Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers.
Royal urged the international community and potential donors to exert pressure on Lebanon’s factions and push them toward national unity.
