Hezbollah accepts Arab peace plan for Lebanon

SAUDI ARABIA: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has accepted an Arab League plan to resolve the crisis in Lebanon pitting the Hezbollah-led opposition against the government, the bloc's envoy said Sunday.

Mustafa Ismail, the envoy of Arab League chief Amr Mussa, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television from Damascus he had received Nasrallah's "agreement in principle" to the proposals and said he was returning to Beirut on Monday.

A Lebanese official said Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa would himself travel to Beirut on Tuesday.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah confirmed that the movement's leader had given a positive response to the Arab envoy.

"Nasrallah has informed Mustafa Ismail that Hezbollah sees positively any initiative that includes the formation of a government of national unity which secures a blocking minority," Fadlallah said.

"But in the end our position will be decided after being discussed among opposition leaders," he added.

Earlier an Arab official told AFP in the Saudi capital that Ismail "was informed in Damascus of the Hezbollah leader's acceptance of the proposals submitted to him."

Ismail relayed the approval to Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who invited him to return to Beirut, the official said, requesting anonymity.

Ismail told Al-Arabiya he had received Nasrallah's "agreement in principle" when he met him in Beirut, and that the Hezbollah chief told him he was not seeking to stage a "coup" or bring down the Siniora government.

Siniora's coalition has accused the opposition of seeking to block cabinet endorsement of plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri, widely blamed on Syria.

Damascus has strongly denied any involvement.

Ismail said the opposition had told him it "does not object to the creation of the tribunal, but only wants to be involved in the details".

The Arab League envoy said the point which remains to be sorted out is the formation of a national unity government, specifically guarantees that a "swing minister" who would join the cabinet would not serve to block its work.

Both sides have voiced readiness to give such guarantees, he said.

"The opposition says I do not want to bring down the government or block its work, and I can give the required guarantees," Ismail said.

"The government in turn says I welcome the opposition's participation ... and am ready to give guarantees on this score. Hence, what we need is additional (discussion of) details of these guarantees."

Earlier Hundreds of thousands of chanting protesters swamped Beirut in a Hezbollah-led rally that marked a leap forward in the opposition's drive to unseat Lebanon's Western-backed government.

In a huge show of force, crowds waving a forest of red-and-white Lebanese flags crammed into two vast squares to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

"Siniora out," demonstrators chanted. "Beirut is free," others yelled in what one security force source estimated was the biggest rally in Lebanese history.

"On this occasion, I call on the protesters to come back to the constitutional institutions to discuss all contested issues and reach real solutions," he said in a statement.

Riyadh, Beirut, Monday, AFP, Reuters