Lebanon's Western-backed Cabinet vowed it would not cave in to calls for its resignation after a massive demonstration led by the pro-Syrian group Hezbollah, as protesters camped outside government offices yesterday.
Friday's massive show of force in central Beirut tightened the political deadlock in the country which has been in near-paralysis due to a fierce power struggle between the pro and anti-Syrian camps.
Crowds of protesters thronged the streets of the capital on Friday, calling for the ouster of the "corrupt" leadership and temporarily blocking access to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's government headquarters.
"The massive demonstration ... has given Lebanon one of the most difficult tests that the country has known in a long while," the pro-Syrian al-Akhbar daily said yesterday.
The leftist as-Safir daily noted that the protest did not contribute to "open any slight door to resolve the political crisis which remains in deadlock."
The Siniora government, which has received strong public backing from Western and some Arab states, pledged not to bow to the opposition led by the Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
"The Syrian-Iranian camp, led by Hezbollah, has begun to implement a plot for a coup" in Lebanon with the demonstration and attempts to besiege the Siniora Cabinet, the anti-Syrian al-Mustqabal daily said yesterday.
The daily is owned by the family of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, whose murder last year, blamed on Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies, led to massive street protests that forced Damascus to end its military presence in Lebanon.
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, the slain prime minister's son, vowed late on Friday that "the Siniora government will not fall because of pressure from the street. However long they continue their protest, it will not fall."
Hezbollah-led demonstrators set up tents and several thousand protesters were still camping early yesterday on at least two main public roads leading to Siniora's offices, after the blockade was eased to allow access from side roads.
The demonstrators vowed to stay until the government gives in, threatening to escalate their actions in the coming days.
Siniora's government has received strong backing from foreign states, including from Jordanian King Abdullah II and Saudi King Abdullah, whose ambassador in Beirut held contacts to help ease the blockade.
Siniora yesterday met visiting British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett who expressed her support for his government and called on Lebanon's feuding factions to return to dialogue.
"I reiterated the United Kingdom's support for Lebanon and to ... prime minister Siniora," Beckett said in a statement.
"We call on all parties to work together for the good of Lebanon and to return to dialogue," she said.
US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Washington denounced what he called "threats of intimidation or violence" which "are aimed at toppling Lebanon's legitimate and democratically elected government."
Casey also accused Syria and Iran of instigating the show of force "to destabilize Lebanon."
"And certainly with things like the assassination of Pierre Gemayel [on Nov. 21] and other kinds of events, it's clear that there is a pattern of intimidation, and efforts at intimidation, of those forces aligned with Lebanon's democratically elected government," he added.
Friday's peaceful demonstration came after last week's mass funeral for murdered anti-Syrian industry minister Pierre Gemayel which brought hundreds of thousands of government supporters on to the streets.
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