Hezbollah seeks a greater role
BEIRUT -- In a dramatic day of dueling statements, Hezbollah's leader called on his supporters and allied forces to pour into Beirut today to bring down the US-backed government, a move Prime Minister Fuad Saniora compared to a coup attempt. He insisted that the government would fall only through a vote of parliament, not a show of force in the streets.
 yesterday by Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah for a protest and open-ended sit-in marks the sharpest escalation yet in a month-long crisis that might determine the direction of Lebanese politics for years , and it represents a potentially precarious step along Beirut's many fault lines of politics, ideology, and sect. Lebanese newspapers have described Nasrallah's call as the "zero hour"; Saniora, in a forceful nighttime speech, repeatedly characterized the coming period as "decisive days."

"Lebanon's independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger," the prime minister said in a televised address . "Threats will not deter us. Maneuvers and ultimatums will not terrorize us."

He ended with words he used during this summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah, a radical Shi'ite Muslim movement: "Lebanon will remain, will remain, will remain."

On one level, the crisis pits Hezbollah and its allies, backed by Iran and Syria, against a government, supported by the United States and France, that sees Hezbollah's demands for greater representation in the cabinet as excessive and destabilizing. But in the background are broader struggles over the country's foreign policy -- whether to tilt toward the United States or Iran -- and the power of the long disenfranchised Shi'ite community, Lebanon's largest.

In an unusually short speech, Nasrallah said that the demonstration should be "civilized and peaceful." Sitting before flags of Lebanon and Hezbollah, he spoke slowly, seeming grimmer than he has in past statements, which have often run an hour.

"We have found that negotiations and consultations have hit a wall because the ruling group insists on monopolizing power," Nasrallah said. "We have no choice left but that of a popular movement to put pressure and to achieve this goal."

Within minutes, residents of Beirut's largely Shi'ite southern suburbs, in Hezbollah's stronghold, set off fireworks to celebrate.

"There is no way to overthrow this government except through the parliament," Saniora answered. More fireworks followed his speech, and cars careered through the downtown streets, with horns honking.

Hours after Nasrallah's call, Beirut braced for today's protest and sit-in. The military has put thousands of troops on the streets, placing armored personnel carriers, roadblocks, and barbed wire around the government building and parliament where Saniora and other ministers have taken up residence. After nightfall, fortifications were added at the nearby UN headquarters.

The crisis has paralyzed Lebanese politics, largely because most don't see how the struggle can be resolved. Hezbollah has demanded a share of the Cabinet that would effectively give it veto power over political decisions, a move Saniora's government has rejected. In speeches yesterday, neither side suggested there was a negotiable solution.

Yet some residents expressed satisfaction yesterday that protests threatened since the end of October would finally arrive. Saniora's supporters seemed confident last night, with some sensing that Hezbollah was playing its last card. If the protests fail to topple the government, they said, Hezbollah would be left with few options to try to force change.

"The government is not going anywhere," said telecommunications minister Marwan Hamadeh.