Hezbollah protest on Beirut streets
Black-clad activists from the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah took over a central square in Beirut today to set up for the first major pro-Syrian demonstration.
Loudspeakers were installed, sniffer dogs searched the area and street drainage holes were checked for explosives ahead of the protest.
Large cranes hoisted two giant white and red flags bearing Lebanon’s cedar tree. On one, the words “Thank you Syria” were written in English; on the other, “No to foreign interference.”
The protest was called to counter the almost daily anti-Syrian protests staged by the Lebanese opposition.
Hezbollah has been mobilising its followers from across the country for the protest, also meant to reject international interference, a reference to the US-led international pressure on Syria.
Faced with incessant international pressure and raging Lebanese opposition, Syrian President Bashar Assad held talks with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud in Damascus and jointly announced a redeployment plan that would lead to total withdrawal.
But the plan set no deadline for the complete withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon, and Washington rejected the pullback as insufficient.
The plan also was unlikely to satisfy the Lebanese opposition and the rest of the international community, which have demanded that all 14,000 Syrian soldiers and an unknown number of intelligence agents leave the country.
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