Beirut's hopes in the intervention of the army and the Arab League
Beirut (AsiaNews) - A statement from the Lebanese army, which says it is ready to use force to guarantee respect for law, and the arrival, expected tomorrow, of the delegation of the Arab League, are the two new elements of a crisis that has already claimed 61 lives, while only sporadic fighting is reported in Tripoli today.
The situation is calm in Beirut, and soldiers have been deployed at the key points: some of the shops have reopened, although schools and universities remain closed. Hezbollah supporters can be seen in the less deserted streets, but in general they are unarmed. The roads to the airport and the seaport, however, remain blocked.
The influence of the Hezbollah fighters can be seen in both of today's new developments. The weakened government of Fouad Siniora has said it will not resign - as the opposition wants it to - but it has had to retract the provisions that provoked the violent reaction of the Party of God: the dismantling of its telephone network, and the suspension of the head of security at the Beirut airport. Formally, both of these questions have been entrusted to the army, which, formally, has "suspended" them. The political adviser to the secretary general of Hezbollah, Hussein Khalil, has communicated that no one will interfere with either of these, and has extended his welcome to the delegation of the Arab League, stressing the need for it to be "impartial", and has announced the continuation of "peaceful" civil disobedience. According to sources in the same party, this excludes the reopening of the airport road, even for the arrival of the Arab representatives. For his part, a faithful ally of the Party of God, Michel Aoun, has indicated the conditions that will be placed on the talks: the resignation of Siniora, and the formation of a government in which the opposition will have the right of veto over any decision and new electoral law. He did not mention the election of the head of state - which the president of parliament, Nabih Berri, another representative of the opposition, has delayed, for the 19th time, until June 10. Perhaps he has never given up the conviction that he could be the next president, in spite of the fact that the majority and opposition insist that they have agreed upon Michel Sleiman, the commander of the army.
Sleiman, in a certain way, is demonstrating the impartiality of a head of state. On the other hand, he does not have the concrete possibility of doing much more, in the face of a group that is more numerous and better armed than his army, in which 35% of the soldiers are Shiites - like Hezbollah and Amal.
It is Saudi Arabia that is trying to shore up the weakness of the government. Today, prime minister Saud al-Faisal directly spoke of the role of Iran, Hezbollah's main ally, evoking tensions with the Arab world if Tehran were to sustain the "coup" in Lebanon. He asked another sponsor of the Party of God, Syria, to play a positive role. The same request will be made by the representatives of the Arab League, who have already announced a visit to Damascus.
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