Hezbollah nominee made Lebanon PM

Protesters accuse Hezbollah of mounting a coup but Hezbollah says it has used only democratic means

Hundreds of protesters have descended on the Lebanese city of Tripoli to take part in a “day of rage” over the likely appointment of a Hezbollah-backed candidate as prime minister.

Reports said angry demonstrators set upon a van used by an Arab TV station.

Smaller protests were also reported elsewhere in the country.

Protesters accuse the Shia Islamist movement of staging a coup after it brought down the Western-backed government in January.

On Monday, Hezbollah gained enough support from parliamentary deputies to allow the candidate it backs, billionaire businessman Najib Mikati, to form the next government.

The US has expressed “great concern” over the prospect of a Hezbollah-dominated government.

Hezbollah-backed candidate Najib Mikati is a US-educated business tycoon

Lebanon’s national unity cabinet collapsed on 12 January after a row over a UN tribunal investigating the 2005 murder of Rafik Hariri, the father of Western-backed caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Mr Hariri had refused to renounce the UN inquiry that correspondents say will blame senior Hezbollah figures for his father’s murder. Hezbollah says the investigation is politically motivated.

TV pictures from a big square in Tripoli on Tuesday morning showed angry protesters waving banners and holding aloft pictures of Prime Minister Hariri.

The pictures showed protesters setting upon a van reported to be used by Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera. Reports said the van was later set on fire.

Schools and shops in the Tripoli area reportedly closed down in anticipation of the protests on what has been dubbed a “day of rage”.

Smaller protests were also reported in the capital Beirut and the mainly Sunni southern coastal city of Sidon.

At protests on Monday at Sunni Muslim bastions around Lebanon, demonstrators burnt tyres and chanted “Sunni blood is boiling!”

Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the post of prime minister is reserved for a Sunni, while the president must be a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament a Shia.

During consultations with President Michel Suleiman at the presidential palace on Monday Mr Mikati – a Sunni and US-educated billionaire businessman, as well as a former premier – won the support of 65 of the 128 members of the Chamber of Deputies.

It was the decision of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and six members of his Progressive Socialist Party to switch their allegiance from Mr Hariri that swung the vote.

Mr Mikati insists that, although he needs the votes of Hezbollah, he remains independent of the movement.

“I am not at all related to Hezbollah by any means,” he told the BBC.

He said people were blaming him because he had Hezbollah’s support, but he was not connected to Hezbollah politically and therefore the criticism was “not relevant”.

On Monday, protesters blocked roads and burned tyres in towns and cities

“I accepted to be prime minister not to create problems but to solve problems”.

“I am a moderate guy, I am a moderate politician, I am always at equal distance from everybody. My objective is the interest of Lebanon and the interest of the nation, the international security of Lebanon and especially to have good relationship with the international community,” Mr Mikati said.

President Suleiman is due to announce his choice for the post of PM on Tuesday after meeting all groups in parliament.

However, Mr Hariri has already said he will refuse to join a Hezbollah-led coalition government. Hezbollah is backed by Iran.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said that if the group’s candidate was appointed prime minister, it would try to form another national unity government that included Mr Hariri’s Western-backed Future Movement.

Hezbollah is on the official US list of foreign terrorist organisations and is subject to financial and travel sanctions.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.