Lebanon’s Syrian-backed government has just resigned. More later.
Captain’s Quarters has more on the Lebanese situation.
It appears as though the Lebanese people are also demanding the resignation of Lebanon’s President Emilie Lahoud. Lahoud is widely known to be little more than a puppet for the Syrians:
“Today the government fell. Tomorrow, it’s the one huddled in Anjar,” opposition leader Elias Atallah told the crowd to cheers, referring to the Syrian intelligence chief based in the eastern Lebanese town of Anjar. He said the opposition will continue its actions until all demands are met.
The protesters went further, immediately shouting for the resignation of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.
“Lahoud, your turn is coming!” they said.
One can hardly keep up with all the good news.
The dominoes are indeed dropping.
This is not a domino effect as suggested above. Lebanon has practically nothing in common with the rest of the Arab world except language. It’s large christian population (40%) of maronite catholic, greek catholic, and greek orthodox heritage have always made the Lebanese equation radically different from any other Arab speaking country. This does show for the first time Sunnis, Shi’iites, Druze, Maronites, Greek Orthodox, and Greek Catholics working together to throw off the Syrian yoke. The syrian question is not about religion. Emil Lahoud is a maronite catholic (he is actually part armenian as well), as the president of Lebanon must be according to the sectarian consitution. The PM Karami is a shi’ite and the speaker of the house is sunni. This constitution was not the invention of Syria, but they helped to strenghten it. Nothing like keeping the country you occupy hopelessly divided in order to distract from your presence. A free lebanon must get rid of the sectarian constitution which has seen both radical muslims and christians abuse power. On an additional note, almost all religious factions have condemned the murder of Hariri, except the Greek Catholics. I’ve no idea what’s up with that.