Lebanon’s Government Falls Amid Surging Street Protests

The Syrian-backed government of Lebanon collapsed Monday under a groundswell of street protests, candlelight vigils and international pressure to end Damascus’ domination of its neighbor.

While thousands of demonstrators thronged the streets outside, Prime Minister Omar Karami, an ally of Syria, stood before parliament and announced that he would quit his job and dismantle his Cabinet. The decision was apparently spontaneous. Pro-Syrian lawmakers appeared stunned and members of the opposition rose in a standing ovation.

The resignation was a triumph for the growing Lebanese opposition, which has been calling for Syria to withdraw its soldiers and disentangle its intelligence services from Lebanon’s institutions. Tensions had been mounting since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many blamed on Syria.

The fall of the government marked a rare flexing of public will in the Arab world, where similar protests have been brutally suppressed.

In Washington, U.S. officials called the government’s dismantling a victory for the Lebanese people and their efforts to hold new elections. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan stressed that the selection of a new government “should be free of all foreign interference.”

“That means Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel need to leave the country,” he said. “That will help ensure that elections are free and fair.”

U.S. officials have also been heartened by recent elections and political reform in the Middle East. January elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip brought to power Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has stepped up peace overtures with Israel.

Iraqi elections, widely predicted to be chaotic, were relatively calm with turnout at a respectable 58%. Over the weekend, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made the surprise announcement that he would release his iron grip and hold open presidential elections this year.

In Lebanon, the parliament had gathered to debate a no-confidence motion, although the government was expected to survive. After hours of bickering, Karami announced his decision to dissolve the government.

“Out of concern that the government does not become an obstacle to the good of the country, I announce the resignation of the government I had the honor to lead,” Karami told lawmakers.

A visibly rattled parliament speaker Nabih Berri told Karami, “I think I deserved to have been told beforehand.”

A few blocks away, protesters greeted the surprise resignation with rapturous applause. Tens of thousands of flag-waving Lebanese had gathered in Martyrs’ Square, flouting an official ban on demonstrations and thwarting the security clampdown that had closed the main thoroughfares into the capital.

“We didn’t have a chance to speak before,” said Marta Bou Raad, a 70-year-old mother of five who had draped a red and white scarf around her neck and joined the protest. “We were afraid that we would be hurt or arrested, but we’re not afraid anymore.”

Monday’s dramatic events made for a heady day among protesters, but Lebanon’s fundamental difficulties endure. Syrian soldiers and political influence remain, and the coming months will be a precarious time. Syria is not expected to give up control easily, if at all.

Opposition lawmakers, their shoulders covered with the scarves that have come to symbolize their movement, emerged from parliament to a hero’s welcome in the square. A few were hoisted onto the shoulders of the protesters, many of whom had slept overnight on the ground.

“The people of a united Lebanon brought down the government,” Mohammed Qabbani, a lawmaker from Hariri’s parliamentary bloc, told the crowd. “Now we want the truth, we want to know who killed Rafik Hariri.”

“Syria, Syria!” shouted the crowd.

After the Cabinet resigned, Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh said he was comfortable with the evening’s turn of events.

“It was a burden on our shoulders and now it has been released. Let others carry the burden,” the pro-Damascus minister said. “The main thing is that we did this without spilling blood.”

Syria keeps 16,000 soldiers in Lebanon and uses thousands of intelligence agents to maintain control on Lebanese politics.

Outrage against Syria was stoked in part by the Lebanese government’s refusal to permit an international investigation into Hariri’s death, and encouraged by angry calls from the United States, France and the United Nations for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon.

The U.N. Security Council last year passed a resolution demanding that Syria withdraw, a move described by both Syrian and pro-Syria Lebanese officials as tampering with the “brotherly relations” between the countries.

“The government should have resigned a long time ago,” said Farid Khazen, chair of political studies at the American University of Beirut. “It lacks credibility and popularity and it’s run by Syria.”

Syrian officials announced last week that they would withdraw their soldiers to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, closer to the Syrian border. But a full withdrawal is out of the question without a peace deal between Syria and Israel, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Monday.

“From a technical viewpoint, the repatriation [of Syrian forces] could happen within the end of the year,” Assad told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “But from a strategic viewpoint, it will only happen if we get ... peace.”

The fall of the government clears the path for Lebanon to set up an interim government to prepare for parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for this spring. The voting has been widely anticipated as a referendum on Syria’s influence.

Analysts will be watching to see how the interim government will be formed. It is unclear whether it will include political representatives of Hezbollah, a powerful, Syria-backed force in Lebanon that maintains guerrillas along Syria’s southern border with Israel. Nor is it clear how the relationship will evolve between the opposition movement and Hezbollah.

The demonstrations were expected to continue. Protesters still demand an independent investigation into Hariri’s death and the withdrawal of Syrian soldiers before the elections. They also call for the resignation of Emile Lahoud, the Lebanese president and a Syria loyalist.

“Lahoud, it’s your turn,” the crowd chanted Monday.

But Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader who has been at the forefront of the opposition, called for a cooling of emotions.

“I believe the main aim was to bring the government down. We achieved this. Today we are at a new crossroads in the history of the country,” Jumblatt told CNN. “We have entered a stage where there must be calm.”

Jumblatt stayed in his ancestral home in Mukhtara, deep in the snowcapped Chouf mountains, for security reasons.

Rioting erupted in Karami’s hometown of Tripoli on Monday, but the fall of the government evolved as a bloodless event. Using peaceful demonstrations to drive the government out of office, the Lebanese public has pulled off a rare feat in a region where street protests are seldom tolerated, let alone able to shake the foundations of power.

Elated Lebanese hailed Monday as a turning point.

“This is a new phenomenon in this part of the world -- it was the people who gave the irresistible force of pressure that made the prime minister cave in,” said Jamil Mroue, publisher of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut. “As far as we’re concerned, this is the rebirth of Lebanon.”

In Washington, a State Department official extolled the developments as a “cedar revolution” -- akin to recent political upheavals in Ukraine and Georgia. A deputy assistant secretary, David Satterfield, was in Lebanon on Monday to meet with the Lebanese foreign minister and to visit Hariri’s residence. Satterfield had no advance knowledge that the government would step down, department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

The Lebanese Interior Ministry had banned Monday’s protest and ordered troops to use “all necessary means” to prevent it. The usually bustling center of Beirut was empty from Saturday night as the military ringed off a large area of the capital.

“It’s taken us four hours to get here,” said 21-year-old student Elie Harb, who made what is usually a 40-minute drive into Beirut for the demonstrations. Harb sported a red and white headband and plastered an “Independence 05” sticker across his white T-shirt. “The army blocked off the highway so we just parked the car and walked for half an hour to get here.”

After getting past the checkpoints, the demonstrators faced a cordon of soldiers and police guarding the entrance to Martyrs’ Square.

“We want to get in,” they chanted before hundreds of protesters pushed through the human barricade and forced their way into the area.

Some people carried olive branches; others gave soldiers roses. Pictures of Hariri were everywhere. The soldiers relented and let them pass.

Druze men in their distinctive white caps and baggy black pants mingled in the crowd with Christian men wearing crucifixes. There were women in T-shirts, along with veiled women.

“Our parents don’t want us to be here. They’re afraid for our safety. But the intimidation won’t scare us,” said Donna Shehadi, a 20-year-old biology student. “We must be independent. I want to take part in this because something has to change.”

Times staff writer Stack reported from Cairo and special correspondent Abouzeid from Beirut. Staff writer Edwin Chen in Washington contributed to this report.