Lebanon tense as Arab League tries to end crisis

MILITARY PRESENCE: Lebanese soldiers drive armoured personnel carriers through the Baabda area east of Beirut heading to deploy in the Druze mountains. (AFP)

The Lebanese army was out in force on Monday in areas outside Beirut that were the scene of fierce sectarian clashes as Arab ministers prepared to send a team to try to end a crisis that has driven the nation to the brink of civil war.

Troops moved into the Druze mountains southeast of the capital, where supporters of the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition had engaged in heavy battles on Sunday.

In Beirut, the situation was calm although schools and some businesses remained shut following five days of unrest that has left 47 people dead and scores wounded in the worst sectarian violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The showdown between Hezbollah and the ruling bloc saw the powerful Shi'ite militant group seize large swathes of Muslim west Beirut, dramatically raising the stakes in the country's 18-month political crisis.

US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has accused his rivals of staging a coup while the Future Movement of parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said the opposition was trying to "turn Beirut into another Baghdad".

Opposition fighters withdrew from the streets after the Lebanese army acted to overturn two government measures against Hezbollah that triggered the fighting last week.

RELATED: Fighting rages in north Lebanon as Beirut siege ends

But some barricades put up by Hezbollah fighters and their allies remained and the road to Beirut internatinal airport was shut for the sixth straight day, reflecting a continuing civil disobedience campaign by the opposition.

There are fears the situation could escalate again against the backdrop of seething hatred between Sunni Arabs and their allies who support the ruling bloc and Shi'ites who back the opposition.

"Lebanon today is but a ship drifting, an arena of macabre games where fighters are victims as well as executioners," said the French-language newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour.

Sunni Islamist groups in the northern port city of Tripoli, which has also been rocked by sectarian clashes, on Sunday declared that they were launching their own resistance to defend the country.

The crisis is widely seen as an extension of the confrontation pitting the US and its Arab allies against Syria and Iran.

US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe on Saturday blamed Hezbollah for the fighting saying: "They continue to be a destabilizing force there with the backing of their supporters, Iran and Syria."

Arab foreign ministers said after crisis talks in Cairo that they will send a high-level delegation to Beirut headed by Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa in a bid to end a long-standing political deadlock.

RELATED: Arab ministers divided over Lebanon

A resolution urged Lebanese politicians "to attend a meeting with a ministerial delegation... in order to discuss the dangerous situation in Lebanon and draw up an urgent roadmap to implement the Arab initiative."

These talks would bring together three opposition stalwarts - parliament speaker Nabih Berri, Christian leader Michel Aoun and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah - with Siniora, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri and former president Amin Gemayel.

Meanwhile a US warship, which was deployed off Lebanon in February amid concern over Lebanon's political crisis, crossed Egypt's Suez Canal on Sunday on its way to the Mediterranean, an official with the canal authority told newswire AFP.

The Lebanese daily As-Safir, which is close to the opposition, questioned whether the return of the warship would not encourage the government in its showdown with Hezbollah.

It said the US-backed Siniora was expected to formally annul his government's controversial decisions against the militant group on Monday, "unless the return of the USS Cole is an occasion for the ruling bloc to once again adopt wrong decisions that would bring the situation back to square one or worse."

The government last week said it would investigate a telephone network run by Hezbollah and reassign the airport security chief over his alleged links to the militant group, moves Nasrallah said was tantamount to a declaration of war.

Lebanon's political standoff, which erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit, has left it without a president since November, when Damascus protege Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term of office.

Lebanon's parliament is due to meet on Tuesday in its 19th attempt to choose a successor to Lahoud but it is now not clear whether the session would take place.

RELATED: Latest presidential vote scheduled for May 13

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