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Lebanon army ready to use force to halt fighting

AFP - Wednesday, May 14

BEIRUT (AFP) - - A precarious calm returned to Lebanon on Tuesday after the army warned it was ready to use force to restore order after six days of sectarian bloodshed that have shaken the nation.

US President George W. Bush, on the eve of a trip to the Middle East, warned Iran and Syria that the international community would not allow Lebanon to fall under foreign domination again and vowed to shore up the Lebanese military.

The fighting, which has left at least 62 people dead and close to 200 wounded, is the worst sectarian unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war and has stoked fears the country was headed for another all-out conflict.

After being ordered not to intervene to protect its neutrality in deeply divided Lebanon, the army said it was prepared to resort to force to disarm gunmen and bring an end to the violence between supporters of the Western-backed government and Hezbollah-led opposition fighters.

No major incidents were reported on Tuesday although fierce battles had erupted briefly overnight in northern port city of Tripoli.

In Beirut , the situation was calm, schools reopened and traffic was slowly returning to normal although some stores remained shut.

Several highways were still blocked by Hezbollah-led Shiite protests including the one to Lebanon's only international airport which remained closed to normal flights, forcing most of those wishing to leave to do so by road to Syria or by boat to Cyprus.

"The civil disobedience campaign will only end when Prime Minister Fuad Siniora officially rescinds his decisions and when his camp returns to the negotiating table," an official with Hezbollah ally Amal told AFP.

That brought a sharp response from the leader of the pro-government bloc in parliament, Saad Hariri, who vowed not to negotiate "with a pistol aimed at our heads. This will not happen even if they fire at us," he insisted.

The latest unrest, which dramatically raised the stakes in an 18-month standoff between the majority and the opposition, erupted after a government crackdown against Hezbollah which the powerful militant group said amounted to a declaration of war.

Bush said his administration would help Siniora by strengthening his armed forces and again blamed Iran and Syria for the confrontation.

"I strongly condemn Hezbollah's recent efforts, and those of their foreign sponsors in Tehran and Damascus, to use violence and intimidation to bend the government and people of Lebanon to their will," said Bush, who is due to meet Siniora in Egypt at the weekend.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband branded Hezbollah's actions "completely unacceptable" and pledged military as well as economic and political for the Lebanese government.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia warned Shiite Iran it risked harming its relations across the Arab world.

"Iran's relations with all Arab countries -- if not all Islamic (countries) -- would be affected if Iran was supporting the coup that took place in Lebanon," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declined to respond directly to the minister's comments "out of respect for King Abdullah" but suggested he had spoken in anger.

Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper said the army decision followed commitments from both camps to rein in their militants pending the outcome of crisis talks with a delegation of Arab foreign ministers due in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Hezbollah welcomed the Arab League's decision to send the delegation but insisted it must be neutral. "We ask the Arabs not to favour one party over another," deputy chief Hussein Khalil told a news conference.

Last week's clashes saw Hezbollah gunmen and their allies take over many Sunni areas of west Beirut, action Siniora's government branded a coup.

Hariri's pro-government television station was also forced off the air, but resumed broadcasting on Tuesday from a Christian area to the east of Beirut.

Hezbollah ended its takeover of west Beirut at the weekend but only after the army reversed a government decision to probe the group's telecommunications network and to reassign the head of airport security over claims he was close to Hezbollah.

Lebanon's latest political standoff, which erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit, has left the country without a president since November 2007, when Damascus protege Emile Lahoud's term ended.

A parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday to elect a new president was cancelled because of the latest unrest and a new date of June 10 was set.

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