Hizbullah mass protests set for Friday in Lebanon

Hizbullah and the opposition forces have called for mass protests to begin Friday in downtown Beirut with the aim of bringing down the Western-backed government.

The call for peaceful street action came in a statement broadcast Thursday on the television stations of Hezbollah and other opposition groups. It said the street action would begin on Friday at 3 p.m. Beirut Time in downtown Beirut, where the embattled government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has its offices.

The leader of the Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Thursday that Lebanon’s Western-backed government had failed and he called for peaceful protests to force it to resign.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government “has proven it is incompetent and has failed to fulfill its promises and achieve anything significant,” Nasrallah said in a televised address broadcast on Hizbullah’s television station, Al-Manar.

The prime minister and members of his Cabinet have been bracing for mass demonstrations for days. The security forces have been deploying troops and armored vehicles outside government offices, where the prime minister is being held.

The call for protests came after weeks of political tension between groups in the opposition, led by Hizbullah, and factions supporting the government, which has wide Western backing.

The opposition “calls on all the Lebanese of all sects and parties … to gather peacefully and stage an open-ended sit-in to protest the absence of real political participation and to demand a national unity government, whose priority is to decide a new election law,” the statement said.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah urged Lebanese to “turn out massively” for the opposition demonstration to press demands for a government of national unity.

It called on supporters to carry only the Lebanese flag and to avoid carrying party banners or posters.

Although the statement said the protest would be peaceful, any attempt by demonstrators to take over government buildings could lead to violence. Previously groups that support Siniora’s government have vowed to call counter demonstrations.

It was not clear from the opposition statement whether the groups would attempt to take over government buildings.

Communications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said that Lebanon’s cabinet will not give in to mass demonstrations called by the opposition for Friday in support of demands for a national unity government.

Saad Hariri predicts him and Jumblatt are next…

Saad Hariri predicts that he and Jumblatt are next targetsParliament’s majority leader Saad Hariri has said that he expected Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and himself to be next in line for assassination after Pierre Gemayel’s murder last week.

Hariri, in an interview with the Egyptian Al-Ahram daily Tuesday, said “the series of assassinations are ongoing and now it’s the turn of two: Walid Jumblatt and Saad Hariri.”

The son of slain ex-Premier Rafik Hariri also reiterated that the Syrian intelligence was behind his father’s murder in a February 2005 suicide truck bombing on the Beirut seafront.

Lebanon has been rocked by a series of assassinations, murder attempts and bombings since October 2004. Anti-Syrian politicians have been the targets of such attacks, the latest of which was the killing of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

200 terroists sent by Syrian President to Lebanon to assassinate…

Beirut- Syrian President Bashar Assad was reported on Wednesday to have sent about 200 terrorists to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to assassinate 36 Lebanese figures.

The daily Al-Mustaqbal said Assad’s “terrorist plot” was part of a propaganda prepared by the Syrian president and his Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.

Hezbollah will satge a protest in Lebanon…

 Pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies will stage a large protest in Beirut within the next 48 hours to demand the resignation of Lebanon’s Western-backed government, a senior political source said on Wednesday.

Militant blew himself up trying to cross into Lebanon…

The Syrian leader of an Islamic militant group blew himself up Tuesday after trying to cross into Lebanon and engaging in a gun battle with Syrian border forces. Two border guards were wounded.

The incident raises questions about the security of the Lebanese-Syrian frontier, which Israel contends is a pipeline for Hezbollah weapons.

The Syrian Interior Ministry said the clash began when Omar Abdullah, 28, leader of the group Tawhid and Jihad, was challenged when he tried to enter Lebanon with fake documents.

Tawhid and Jihad was the name originally used by Al Qaeda in Iraq. Groups linked to or sympathetic to Al Qaeda have used the name, but such a group had not been known to be operating in Syria.

A witness said Abdullah was standing outside the passport control building when security agents approached. He opened fire, wounding two guards.

More security forces arrived, started shooting and apparently hit the gunman, the witness said. He said the attacker raised one hand but used the other to detonate an explosives belt.