BEIRUT (AFP)
Lebanon on Tuesday banned motorbikes, political demonstrations as well as flag waving and provocative slogans from the Lebanese capital until further notice after clashes between rival factions last night.
"Motorbikes will be banned in Beirut effective at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on May 27, 2008, until further notice," an interior ministry statement said.
Demonstrations, the waving of party flags or provocative slogans were also banned in the city.
It is common practice in Beirut for supporters of various rival political parties to drive around the city waving party flags, blaring slogans on loudspeakers and shooting in the air.
Hezbollah and its ally Amal movement put out a statement on Tuesday calling on their supporters to put an end to these practices saying that they would "not provide political cover for them."
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Latest clashes Al-Arabiya TV said last night's clashes came as Hezbollah supporters were celebrating a speech by their leader Hassan Nasrallah, who vowed his powerful group would not use its weapons to achieve political gains.
Rival supporters insulted the Hezbollah backers who reacted by firing off a stun grenade at the Sunni mosque of Abdel Nasser, according to Al-Arabiya.
"A clash took place in the Corniche Mazraa area and gunshots were fired," the source said, asking not to be named.
Future Television, which is run by the camp of parliament majority head and Sunni leader Saad Hariri, said 16 people were wounded in an "attack on civilians" by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army cordoned off the area and restored order, said state-run Tele Liban, without giving details or reporting any casualties.
It was the first such incident since the army took control of west Beirut after Hezbollah pulled out its fighters who seized control in several days of mostly Shiite-Sunni clashes earlier this month that killed 65 people. |
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New PM Just hours before the clashes, it was announced that new Lebanese President Michel Suleiman will appoint a prime minister on Wednesday to head a new cabinet to be formed as part of an agreement ending 18 months of political conflict.
Suleiman, who was elected by parliament on Sunday, will consult lawmakers on Wednesday on their choice for prime minister, a statement from the presidency said. He will ask the candidate nominated by most MPs to form the next government.
The parliamentary majority is expected to nominate its leader, Saad al-Hariri, or current prime minister, Fouad Siniora. The prime minister must be a Sunni according to Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.
Qatar last week mediated the agreement between the U.S.-backed ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition alliance, defusing a crisis that has caused the worst civil strife since Lebanon's 1975-90 war.
Hassan Nasrallah spoke of great wounds on both sides in his first comments since the fighting, which exacerbated tensions between Shiites loyal to his group and Sunni and Druze followers of the governing coalition.
"The election of General Michel Suleiman as president of the republic renews the hopes of the Lebanese for a new era," Nasrallah said in a speech to mark the eighth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
"I reiterate the call for true, national participation."
Hariri, Lebanon's main Sunni leader, also expressed hope. "We hope that a new phase in the lives of the Lebanese will begin after the election of President Michel Suleiman and that we open a new page in politics and reconciliation," he said.
Were he to become prime minister, Hariri would take up a post previously held by his father Rafik al-Hariri, whose Feb. 14, 2005 assassination plunged Lebanon into more than three years of crisis. |
