lebanon tired of us meddling

Protests against US meddling in Lebanon
Hostile slogans chanted in front of US embassy
January 18, 2006
bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp

Several thousand students demonstrated outside the US embassy north of the Lebanese capital yesterday to protest “American interference” in the country.

The protest was organised by the Shia movement Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon.

Lebanese troops and anti-riot police surrounded the embassy in the northern suburb of Awkar as students ferried in by buses from across the country converged on the diplomatic mission.

The troops kept the protesters at bay some 500 metres from the embassy.

Drowned in a sea of Lebanese flags and under driving rain, the protesters chanted slogans hostile to the US administration, accusing Washington and its ambassador in Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman, of “interference” in Lebanese affairs.

“Death to America! USA out!” they shouted.

Several protesters, interviewed on Hezbollah’s Al Manar television which aired the protest live, slammed UN Security Council Resolution 1559 that demanded the disarming of Hezbollah’s militia and pro-Palestinian fighters.

Feltman has said Lebanon must respect international resolutions. The embassy, meanwhile, issued a statement to express its “shock” over a front-page report in the pro-Syrian Beirut newspaper As Safir yesterday that the ambassador had said it was “time to get rid of Hezbollah”.

“By inventing such a story, As Safir clearly hopes to provoke increased tensions in Lebanon at a time when responsible people are looking for ways to lower tensions,” it said.

“Because of the dangers that some people will mistakenly believe such stories and act upon them, the embassy must consider these fabrications to be a direct threat against ambassador Feltman’s safety,” the embassy said.

The demonstration was the second anti-US protest in Lebanon since Saturday, when riot police used tear-gas and water cannon against demonstrators led by Hezbollah who were protesting against a visit by a US envoy to Beirut.

Organisers of yesterday’s demonstration said it was in response to the police’s “repression” of last week’s protest when 15 demonstrators suffered head injuries and seven policemen were injured by stones and hospitalised.