Region | Lebanon

Siniora calls on army to restore order

Hezbollah's arms are no longer legitimate as they turned on the Lebanese, he says.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 23:37 May 10, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • People gesture during a demonstration as they make their way towards the Future TV station that was forced to close by Hezbollah guerrillas in Beirut on Saturday.
  • Image Credit: AP
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Beirut: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged the army to restore order after Hezbollah took over west Beirut and vowed his government would hold firm in its face-off with the Shiite fighters.

"I have called on the army to live up to its national responsibilities without hesitation or delay and this has not happened until now," Siniora said in a televised address to the nation that marked his first reaction to the sectarian clashes that have left more than two dozen people dead in four days.

"The dream of democracy ... has been dealt a poisonous sting," Siniora said. "Your country will not succumb to those behind this coup and the Lebanese people will not allow the return of hegemony and terrorism.

"Democracy has taken a stab to the heart ... but the state will not fall to those behind this coup."

He called on all Lebanese to stand for a minute's silence today to commemorate those killed in the sectarian clashes of the past four days.

Siniora said the weapons of Hezbollah could no longer be considered legitimate as they had been turned on Lebanese.

"We believed them when they said they would not turn their weapons internally," he said.

"But Hezbollah must know that the power of weapons will not terrorise us. "If Hezbollah must use its communication network, this must be known and approved by the state," Siniora said.

Arab ministers' meet

He urged the immediate election as president by parliament of consensus candidate General Michel Sulaiman, the current army chief.

Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting today to discuss the crisis in Lebanon, the Arab League said yesterday, after Hezbollah seized control of Beirut.

"The Arab League council at the ministerial level will hold an emergency session [today] to discuss the Lebanese crisis and how to deal with it," the League said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt had called for an emergency session to discuss the crisis.

Syria's Arab League envoy Yousuf Ahmad said that the Syrian Foreign Minister might not attend the meeting, Egypt's Mena news agency reported.

"Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al Mua'alem might not head his country's delegation at [today's] emergency meeting of the Arab foreign minister's council ... due to work in Damascus," Mena quoted Ahmad as saying, adding he would head the Syrian team.

Earlier on Saturday, an Arab League official in Cairo said the ministers would call for an immediate agreement on the forming of a Lebanese national unity government and the election of General Sulaiman as president.

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