Beirut: Lebanon's government has urged rival political parties to engage in dialogue and remain calm amid an escalating war of words between Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri's camp and Hezbollah.
"The cabinet insisted on the need to put an end to the media war, to protect state institutions and to resort to dialogue," Information Minister Tarek Mitri said, after members of the unity government met on Tuesday.
The war of words, which could lead to sectarian violence, between Hariri's Western and Saudi-backed coalition and Hezbollah and its allies, is largely related to a probe by a United Nations-backed tribunal into the murder of Hariri's father, Rafiq Hariri, who died in a bombing in 2005, which shook the country.
The tribunal is reportedly set to implicate Hezbollah in the assassination which, at the time, drew international condemnation and forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon following a 29-year presence.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, says it will respond if any of its members are implicated and has dismissed the tribunal as an Israeli plot.
In a show of force at the weekend, the militant party pushed its way into Beirut's international airport to escort the former head of the country's security services, wanted for questioning in relation to recent comments.
Brigadier General Jamil Sayyed, who was held for four years without charge, in connection with Hariri's murder, earlier this month accused Hariri of selling his father's blood in order to frame Syria for the killing and urged the Lebanese to topple the government. His comments prompted the country's top prosecutor to summon him for questioning but Sayyed has challenged the legality of the summons.
Hariri, is set to address the nation this week. On Tuesday, following the cabinet meeting, he said that mounting political tension was giving Lebanon a bad image and raised fears of civil unrest.
"The country has been drowning in a war of words in recent weeks," he said. "The Lebanese are deeply anxious and some believe that we are on the edge of a renewed wave of destruction. This is not the image we want to portray to the world."
