Hariri supporters clash with Hizbullah
AP, Herb Keinon and JPost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 28, 2009
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In the first outbreak of violence since this month's election, supporters of
Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri clashed with Hizbullah gunmen
in the streets of Beirut on Sunday, security officials said.

The officials said one woman was killed and at least three people were
wounded, including a Lebanese soldier.

Automatic rifle fire and three explosions were heard in the brief gunbattle
that underlined the continued sectarian tensions despite recent pledges by
political leaders to work together. Those pledges followed a bruising
election campaign.

Lebanese troops cordoned off the Aisha Bakkar neighborhood in the capital's
Muslim sector and deployed in force to restore calm Sunday evening, security
officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
speak to the media. They said the dead victim was a 30-year-old woman shot
outside her home.

The fighting was between supporters of Hariri, a Sunni who leads the
parliamentary majority, and rival followers of the Hizbullah-allied Shiite
parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

In May 2008, heavy clashes erupted between the same rival factions.
Hizbullah along with Berri's Amal movement later swept through Sunni
neighborhoods to briefly seize control.

Earlier on Sunday, Hariri, the Western-backed billionaire who is to become
the country's next prime minister, held talks with his predecessors as part
of the delicate process of forming a government that can unify the deeply
divided country.

Hariri was on Saturday named by Lebanon's president as the next prime
minister after his pro-Western coalition defeated a Hizbullah-backed
alliance in the June 7 election.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - in a clear message to
Beirut - told the cabinet Sunday that if Hizbullah was included in the
Lebanese government, Lebanon would be responsible for Hizbullah's actions.

"If Hizbullah joins the Lebanese government, then the Lebanese government is
accepting responsibility for Hizbullah's actions, including its actions
against Israel," Netanyahu told the cabinet, according to a government
source.

The Prime Minister's comments came during a cabinet discussion on
Hizbullah's attempts to entrench itself inside the new Lebanese government.
It also came in light of rare talks Thursday between Hariri, the son of
assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, and Hizbullah leader Hassan
Nasrallah, to investigate the possibility of a national unity government.

Netanyahu's comments, according to government officials, were meant to
inform the Lebanese that if a national unity government was created, Beirut
would bear responsibility for Hizbullah's actions. The official said Israel
would deem Hizbullah's participation in the new government as "a matter of
extreme significance."

Over the past four years, Hariri has faced death threats as he accused Syria
of killing his father and other politicians in a mysterious campaign of
bombings and assassinations in Lebanon. Syria has denied involvement. He has
regularly traveled to world capitals to lobby for the international
tribunal, set up in March in the Netherlands, to try his father's killers.