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  • 500 000 March For Syria.........

    Thousands Answer Hezbollah Call in Beirut

    23 minutes ago Top Stories - AP


    By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

    BEIRUT, Lebanon - Nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters waved flags and chanted anti-American slogans in a central Beirut square Tuesday, answering a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group for a demonstration to counter weeks of massive rallies demanding Syrian forces leave Lebanon.





    Organizers handed out Lebanese flags and directed the men and women to separate sections of Riad Solh Square. Loudspeakers blared militant songs urging resistance to foreign interference. Demonstrators held up pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and signs saying, "Syria & Lebanon brothers forever."


    Other placards read: "America is the source of terrorism"; "All our disasters are from America"; "No to American-Zionist intervention; Yes to Lebanese-Syrian brotherhood."


    Black-clad Hezbollah guards handled security, lining the perimeter of the square and taking position on rooftops. Trained dogs sniffed for bombs.


    Large cranes hoisted two giant red-and-white 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 demonstration was in front of U.N. offices. Hezbollah opposes the U.N. resolution drafted by the United States and France last year calling for Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.


    In Washington, President Bush (news - web sites) demanded again that Syria pull its troops out of Lebanon and allow free elections. "All Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the Lebanese elections for these elections to be free and fair," he said.


    A Syrian official in Damascus said on condition of anonymity Tuesday that its intelligence agents would be pulled back along with the regular army.


    Riad Solh Square is just a few blocks from another downtown square where opposition protesters have been rallying for days, demanding that Syria withdraw its troops.


    Tuesday's rally was far bigger than the more than 70,000 anti-Syrian protesters who filled nearby Martyrs' Square on Monday. That was the biggest rally yet of anti-Syrian furor, as demonstrators waved Lebanon's cedar-tree flag and thundered, "Syria out!"


    There were no independent estimates of Tuesday's crowd, but at least 500,000 people crowded Riad Solh Square and nearby streets. The Lebanese army blocked the road between the two squares with an armored carrier.


    "I ask our partners in the country or those looking at us from abroad: Are all these hundreds of thousands of people puppets? Is all this crowd agents for the Syrians and intelligence agencies?" Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said to cheers from the crowd.


    At least one opposition leader said the pro-Syrian government pressured people to turn out Tuesday and some reports said Syria bused in people from across the border.


    A day after the Syrian and Lebanese leaders announced that Syrian forces would redeploy to eastern Lebanon before the nations discuss a full withdrawal, most of the troops were still in position, with Associated Press reporters in the mountains overlooking Beirut seeing only scattered movement of military trucks heading toward the Bekaa Valley.


    A truck carrying 11 soldiers and supplies headed east at midmorning but most of the military traffic was moving in the other direction — empty trucks and buses traveling west apparently to collect soldiers and equipment.


    Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, has been mobilizing its followers from across the country for the protest, also meant to denounce the U.N. resolution that also called for dismantling militias — a point Hezbollah sees as aimed at its well-armed military wing.


    Hezbollah is widely admired both within Lebanon and across the Arab world for driving Israeli forces out of the country's south. It also has the organizational capability and party discipline to mobilize massive street protests, drawing its strength from the Shiite Muslim community, Lebanon's largest religious sect with 1.2 million people.





    In the outlying heavily Shiite regions of the Bekaa and the south, loudspeakers had urged followers to travel to Beirut for the protest.

    Opposition leaders, who have been courting Hezbollah's support to oust Syrian troops, accused Lebanese intelligence agents of exercising pressure on municipalities, public schools and institutions to drive up the number of demonstrators.

    Hezbollah officials denied the charges, saying it is part of a campaign to make the demonstration seem "imposed and involuntary."

    Hezbollah, founded by Iran (news - web sites) and backed in part by Syria, has emerged as a key player in the latest political instability, capable of tilting the balance either in favor of the government or the opposition.

    Cabinet Minister Talal Erslan drew cheers Tuesday when he said the crowd came from all over Lebanon "to affirm our gratitude to Syrian president Bashar Assad."

    "We have come here to affirm Lebanon's independence, sovereignty and unity ... and say no to the flagrant foreign interference in our affairs," he said.

    Participants stressed that the foreign influence they referred to was from the United States, France and other countries, not Syria, which they welcomed.

    "Syria should not leave. We are one hand and one people," said 16-year-old Esraa Awarki, who traveled by bus from Sharkiya in southern Lebanon. "Why do they want us to split now?"

    At one point, the crowd observed a moment of silence for former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose assassination in a Feb. 14 bombing triggered the weeks of anti-Syrian demonstrations. Many Lebanese accuse Syria and Lebanon's government of responsibility for Hariri's death; both deny any involvement.

    Faced with incessant international pressure and raging Lebanese opposition, Assad on Saturday announced his troops would withdraw after nearly three decades in Lebanon. On Monday, he met with President Emile Lahoud in Damascus and jointly announced a plan.

    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.

    Washington wants a full withdrawal of Syrian soldiers and intelligence agents before Lebanese parliamentary elections expected in April and May. The White House called the Lebanese-Syrian plan "a half measure."

    Syria has had troops here since 1976, when they were sent as peacekeepers during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. When the war ended, the troops remained and Syria has dominated Lebanon's politics ever since.

    Under the plan announced Monday, all Syrian troops in Lebanon would fall back to eastern regions near Syria by March 31. Military officers will decide by April 30 the duration and size of Syrian forces to remain in that region. After that period, the two governments would decide on a date for pullout.




    This is not going to sit well with a lot of people........We are for tense days ahead...........

    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...banon_syria_34
    "They want to test our feelings.They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and their newspapers."

    Protester

  • #2
    Funny there were no reports on CNN about the protests.

    Looks like CNN is blatantly anti-Syrian and is playing a propaganda game.

    So much for the neutrality carp spouted by CNN.

    Comment


    • #3
      It is on BBC.

      I wonder what will happen to the Israeli - Palestinian peace moves. I sure hope it does not get derailed.

      Huge Beirut protest backs Syria

      Lebanese demonstrators gather for pro-Syrian rally

      Many Lebanese believe they share Syria's interests

      Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, to applaud Syria's role in the country and reject Western "interference".

      "We are here to thank Syria which has stayed by our side for many years," the head of the Syrian-allied Hezbollah group told cheering supporters.

      The crowd dwarfed previous opposition protests urging Syrian troops to leave.

      In a speech in Washington, President George W Bush reiterated US demands for complete Syrian withdrawal.

      The Beirut rally was organised by Hezbollah, a powerful political and military organisation of Shia Muslims, the largest religious minority in Lebanon.

      Hezbollah officials handed out Lebanese flags and directed the men and women to separate sections, but the crowds were so large they spilled out of Riad al-Solh Square into surrounding streets.


      I came here today to say no to international intervention, the US, France and Israel - I came to thank Syria
      Pro-Syrian demonstrator
      The group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said there would be further demonstrations in other Lebanese towns including Tripoli in the north, Nabatiya in the south and in the eastern Bekaa valley.

      He also warned the US military not to interfere in Lebanon, saying: "If the American fleet lands in Lebanon, it will be defeated."

      The rally took place just a few hundred metres from Martyrs Square, where predominantly Christian, Druze and some Sunni Muslims, have been holding their anti-Syria protests.

      A line of military vehicles separated the two squares to avoid any possible friction between the rival demonstrators.

      Redeployment

      Hezbollah has grown into a powerful political force as it conducted a military campaign to push Israeli forces out of south Lebanon, which happened in 2000.

      It has several MPs in parliament, an influential television station and a network of welfare and charitable organisations.


      SYRIA IN LEBANON
      Military intervention begins in 1976
      30,000 troops in Lebanon during 1980s, currently 14,000
      Syrian forces help end Lebanese civil war in 1990 and maintain peace
      Calls for Syrian withdrawal increase in 2000 after Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon
      UN resolution calling for foreign forces' withdrawal in Sept 2004

      Q&A: Syria in Lebanon
      In pictures: Beirut protests
      Who's who in Syria?
      Its demonstration of support came as Syria - facing intense international pressure - began moving some of its 14,000 troops in Lebanon east, as part of a pull-back plan adopted by Lebanese and Syrian leaders in Damascus on Monday.

      The US has described the plan as a "half-measure" and said all Syrian troops and intelligence officers should leave Lebanon immediately in line with UN resolution 1559, sponsored jointly by Washington and Paris.

      Speaking at Washington's National Defense University, President Bush did not mention the latest rally, but repeated US demands that Syria end its presence in Lebanon before elections take place in May.

      "Syria... has a long history of supporting terrorist groups determined to sow division and chaos in the Middle East. And there's every possibility they will try this strategy again," he said.

      Syrian troops arrived in neighbouring Lebanon as peacekeepers during the 1975-1990 civil war, since when Damascus has kept a firm hold on the political and financial spheres in Lebanon.

      France, Germany and Russia have also called for a Syrian withdrawal, as has its long-standing Arab ally, Saudi Arabia.

      On Monday, large crowds gathered in Martyrs Square for protests to mark three weeks since the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, killed in a car bomb blamed by many on Syria. Damascus has consistently denied responsibility.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4329201.stm


      "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

      I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

      HAKUNA MATATA

      Comment


      • #4
        And this folks, is why Lebanon had a 15 year civil war.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by ZFBoxcar
          And this folks, is why Lebanon had a 15 year civil war.
          Yeah, hopefully self-determination will win this time.
          No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
          I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
          even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
          He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

          Comment


          • #6
            Democracy in action?
            -------

            Thousands Answer Hezbollah Call in Beirut
            Militants Stage Pro-Syrian Demonstration
            By TANALEE SMITH, AP

            BEIRUT, Lebanon (March 8) -- Nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters waved flags and chanted anti-American slogans in a central Beirut square Tuesday, answering a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group for a demonstration to counter weeks of massive rallies demanding Syrian forces leave Lebanon.

            Organizers handed out Lebanese flags and directed the men and women to separate sections of Riad Solh Square. Loudspeakers blared militant songs urging resistance to foreign interference. Demonstrators held up pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and signs saying, ''Syria & Lebanon brothers forever.''

            Other placards read: ''America is the source of terrorism''; ''All our disasters are from America''; ''No to American-Zionist intervention; Yes to Lebanese-Syrian brotherhood.''

            Black-clad Hezbollah guards handled security, lining the perimeter of the square and taking position on rooftops. Trained dogs sniffed for bombs.

            Large cranes hoisted two giant red-and-white flags bearing Lebanon's cedar tree. On one, the words, ''Thank you Syria,'' were written in English; on the other, ''No to foreign interference.''

            Participants stressed that the foreign influence they referred to was from the United States, France and other countries, not Syria, which they welcomed.

            ''Syria should not leave. We are one hand and one people,'' said 16-year-old Esraa Awarki, who traveled by bus from Sharkiya in southern Lebanon. ''Why do they want us to split now?''

            The demonstration was in front of U.N. offices. Hezbollah opposes the U.N. resolution drafted by the United States and France last year calling for Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.

            In Washington, President Bush demanded again that Syria pull its troops out of Lebanon and allow free elections. ''All Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the Lebanese elections for these elections to be free and fair,'' he said Tuesday.

            The demonstration came a day after Syrian and Lebanese leaders announced that Syrian forces would transfer to eastern Lebanon before the nations discuss a full withdrawal.

            On Tuesday, two senior Lebanese officials said a major redeployment of the Syrian army from central and northern Lebanon would begin late in the day and be completed by March 23.

            Lebanese Defense Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad told The Associated Press that ''all the force in the (central) mountains and north will move to the Bekaa (Valley) as of 10 p.m.'' He said that included the main Syrian intelligence offices in Beirut.

            Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares, speaking to LBC television, said the full withdrawal to the eastern valley will be complete before the end of March, ''or in other words before the (Arab) summit, which falls March 23.''

            Most of the Syrian troops were still in position Tuesday, with AP reporters in the mountains overlooking Beirut seeing only scattered movement of military trucks heading toward the Bekaa Valley.

            A truck carrying 11 soldiers and supplies headed east at midmorning but most of the military traffic was moving in the other direction - empty trucks and buses traveling west apparently to collect soldiers and equipment.

            Fares said he believes the next phase, the full withdrawal from Lebanon, will be ''speedy.''

            ''The army's movements are unannounced. They are secrets. But in my view it will be fast,'' he said, without giving a date.

            Riad Solh Square in Beirut is just a few blocks from another downtown square where opposition protesters have been rallying for days, demanding that Syria withdraw its troops.

            Tuesday's rally was far bigger than the more than 70,000 anti-Syrian protesters who filled nearby Martyrs' Square on Monday. That was the biggest rally yet of anti-Syrian furor, as demonstrators waved Lebanon's cedar-tree flag and thundered, ''Syria out!''

            There were no independent estimates of Tuesday's crowd, but at least 500,000 people crowded Riad Solh Square and nearby streets. The Lebanese army blocked the road between the two squares with an armored carrier.

            ''I ask our partners in the country or those looking at us from abroad: Are all these hundreds of thousands of people puppets? Is all this crowd agents for the Syrians and intelligence agencies?'' Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said to cheers from the crowd.

            At least one opposition leader said the pro-Syrian government pressured people to turn out Tuesday and some reports said Syria bused in people from across the border.

            Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, has been mobilizing its followers from across the country for the protest, also meant to denounce the U.N. resolution that also called for dismantling militias - a point Hezbollah sees as aimed at its well-armed military wing.

            Hezbollah is widely admired both within Lebanon and across the Arab world for driving Israeli forces out of the country's south. It also has the organizational capability and party discipline to mobilize massive street protests, drawing its strength from the Shiite Muslim community, Lebanon's largest religious sect with 1.2 million people.

            In the outlying heavily Shiite regions of the Bekaa and the south, loudspeakers had urged followers to travel to Beirut for the protest.

            Opposition leaders, who have been courting Hezbollah's support to oust Syrian troops, accused Lebanese intelligence agents of exercising pressure on municipalities, public schools and institutions to drive up the number of demonstrators.

            Hezbollah officials denied the charges, saying it is part of a campaign to make the demonstration seem ''imposed and involuntary
            .''

            Hezbollah, funded by Iran and backed in part by Syria, has emerged as a key player in the latest political instability, capable of tilting the balance either in favor of the government or the opposition.

            Cabinet Minister Talal Erslan drew cheers Tuesday when he said the crowd came from all over Lebanon ''to affirm our gratitude to Syrian president Bashar Assad.''

            ''We have come here to affirm Lebanon's independence, sovereignty and unity ... and say no to the flagrant foreign interference in our affairs,'' he said.

            At one point, the crowd observed a moment of silence for former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose assassination in a Feb. 14 bombing triggered the weeks of anti-Syrian demonstrations. Many Lebanese accuse Syria and Lebanon's government of responsibility for Hariri's death; both deny any involvement.

            Faced with incessant international pressure and raging Lebanese opposition, Assad on Saturday announced his troops would withdraw after nearly three decades in Lebanon. On Monday, he met with President Emile Lahoud in Damascus and jointly announced a plan.

            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.

            Syria has had troops here since 1976, when they were sent as peacekeepers during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. When the war ended, the troops remained and Syria has dominated Lebanon's politics ever since.


            03-08-05 1640 EST

            http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/arti...04160509990019
            To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

            Comment


            • #7
              Looks like civil war again.

              Comment


              • #8
                A most dangerous situation ensues.

                Lebanon has a sizeable Shia population.

                Having been who have been subjugated for centuries by the Sunnis in the Islamic world, the Shias have suddenly found their voice after they won in the Iraqi elections.

                With their new found 'voice', they are now trying to flex their muscles.

                Stand by for carnage! The stage is ripe.


                "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                HAKUNA MATATA

                Comment


                • #9
                  I have a different take on this:

                  I believe that this demonstration MARGINILIZED Hezbollah, as it showed them to be mere puppets of the Syrians and their hated regime.

                  I say that because of the huge counter-counter-demonstration that dwarfed Hezbollah's (which was the origin of this thread, and all the gloom shown in this thread that came of that 'massive' show of 'support' to the Syrians).

                  This is the continuation of the story from Ukraine: average people out in the street to support THEIR country, and yelling "NO!" to foreign meddling, and what a few of their countrymen support for their own special interests.

                  Hezbollah bet on the wrong hand, and by staging a pro-Syria rally, they put all their chips on the table. They lost, and because they are now in open opposition to the majority of the Lebanese people, their power is broken.

                  So...that "huge" demonstration? That actually turned out to be a Good Thing for the Lebanese and the supporters of democracy around the world, including us.

                  Comment

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