Before It’s News – by Mort Amsel
Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s prime minister, has resigned after deadlock in his cabinet over preparations for a parliamentary election and a dispute over extending the term of a senior security official.
The outgoing prime minister has called for the formation of a national unity government.
“I announce the resignation of the government, hoping that this will open the way for the major political blocs to take responsibility and come together to bring Lebanon out of the unknown,” Mikati told a news conference on Friday.
Shia group Hezbollah and its allies, which backed the government, blocked the creation of a body to supervise parliamentary elections which is due in June and opposed extending the term of a senior security official.
The cabinet failed on Friday to extend the term of Major General Ashraf Rifi, head of Lebanon’s internal security forces, who is due to retire early next month.
Rifi, like Mikati, is a Sunni Muslim from Tripoli.
Three more people, including a soldier, have been killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of the Syrian government in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, bringing to six the total number of people killed in the clashes since Thursday.
The deadly exchange of gunfire took place between rival factions from the Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Jebal Mohsen neighborhoods of Tripoli on Thursday, the Lebanese news portal Naharnet reported on Friday.
Over 26 others, mostly civilians, were reportedly wounded in overnight shootouts, as calm took hold in the city.
In the video below showing the clashes in Tripoli, gunmenfly the flag of Al-Qaeda..
The following video are of the street battles in Tripoli, Lebanon. Nothing and then INTENSE gunfire..
Lebanon better watch itself or else it falls prey to the rising Salafist tide throughout the muslim world. -Mort