March 14 Holds onto 'Peaceful' Protests Until Cabinet Steps Down
The March 14 General Secretariat said on Wednesday that the “peaceful protests” that the youth groups affiliated with the alliance had called for after the Beirut bombing in Ashrafiyeh district will continue until the cabinet steps down.
“We are committed to the peaceful struggle through all the democratic and popular means,” March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid told reporters after the general secretariat's weekly meeting.
The March 14 youth groups had erected tents near the Grand Serail on Sunday, demanding Prime Minister Najib Miqati to resign after clashes broke out between mourners, mainly March 14 supporters, and the security forces near the premier's office after the funeral of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan on Sunday.
Police fired in the air and used tear gas to drive back protesters who tried to storm the premier's office.
The March 14 General Secretariat pointed out that the Lebanese people are capable of safeguarding the state.
It considered that the Syrian regime is “insisting” on violating Lebanon's sovereignty by assassinating Hasan in Ashrafiyeh along with two others.
“This crime will only make us more determined to continue the struggle for a free, independent, and Arab Lebanon,” the statement said.
The March 14 alliance held Miqati and his cabinet responsible for “facilitating (President Bashar) Assad's regime criminal plot.”
Miqati said over the weekend in the wake of Hasan's assassination that he doesn't “want to jump to conclusions in the case, but we cannot separate Hasan's murder to that of the arrest of former Minister Michel Samaha.”
The General Secretariat said that that the resignation of the cabinet is a key condition to any efforts exerted to foil threats surrounding the country and maintaining stability.
Friday's bombing has raised fears about unrest in the country, which is divided between supporters and opponents of Assad, whose country supervised its small neighbor for nearly 30 years.
Under Hasan, the ISF played a central role in the August arrest of Samaha, who has close links to Damascus.
He was charged in August with planning attacks to spark sectarian strife in Lebanon.
The agency was also deeply involved in seeking the arrest of those responsible for a host of attacks and assassinations between 2005 and 2008, starting with former Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination, for which Hasan blamed Damascus.
In October 2010, the Syrian courts issued arrest warrants against 33 Lebanese figures, including Hasan, for perjury in the case of the Hariri assassination.
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