Charbel: Armed Forces to Deploy Heavily during Rival Protests in Downtown Beirut
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that Lebanese security forces and the army will deploy en masse in downtown Beirut on Sunday amid planned sit-ins by pro- and anti-Assad regime demonstrators.
In remarks to LBC TV station on Saturday, Charbel said: “We will allow anyone wishing to demonstrate to go down to Martyrs’ Square tomorrow.”
“We have taken all the necessary measures to secure the area and prevent a clash,” he said, adding that everyone’s allowed to express his opinion in a democratic and peaceful way.
He made his comment although the interior ministry hasn’t yet given permits to the protests. Charbel later headed a security meeting at his office in the ministry to coordinate the security measures that will be taken on Sunday.
The Imam of a mosque in the southern city of Sidon, Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, who is organizing the 1:00 pm protest against the deadly crackdown of the Syrian regime on protestors, said in remarks published in al-Joumhouria daily on Saturday that he would not back off from his call to hold the sit-in “despite all the pressure.”
“This is a peaceful sit-in and not a demonstration,” he stressed, urging each person who considers himself humanitarian and rejects the violence in Syria to join hands with him in the sit-in.
During a press conference he held at his residence in the town of Abra near Sidon on Friday, al-Asir said “some parties loyal to the March 8 (forces) want to resort to the street and cut roads to stir tension.”
“We are living in a state and not a jungle and the state should protect us,” he stressed.
His call for a sit-in in support of the Syrian opposition prompted parties that are part of the March 8 forces to hold a rival protest in the same area in support of the Assad regime.
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya said in a statement later Saturday that it will not take part in Sunday’s anti-Assad sit-in but stressed the right to freedom of expression.
Al-Mustaqbal movement said it has nothing to do with the sit-in that Sheikh al-Asir has called for.
As for the Baath party, its leader Fayez Shokr told al-Jadeed TV, that his supporters will head to downtown Beirut to announce their support for the Syrian regime even if they don’t receive a permit.
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