Hariri denounces supporters rioting

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri strikes a tone of national unity amid riots following the appointment of the opposition’s pick for the post of premier.

Hezbollah-backed candidate Najib Mikati won on Tuesday the backing of the parliamentary majority to become the country’s next prime minister.

President Michel Sleiman issued a decree on Tuesday appointing Mikati as new prime minister.

This sparked outrage among supporters of March 14 leader Hariri, whose national unity cabinet collapsed in the wake of a mass resignation of opposition ministers.

The rioters poured into streets on what they called “a day of rage” in Beirut, Tripoli and several other northern Lebanese cities, where they blocked roads, burned tires and clashed with security and military forces.

In a televised address to his supporters, Hariri praised his supporters for “raising their voices and condemning the attempt to practice hegemony” on Lebanon’s decision-making process.

However, he called on all Lebanese to exercise restraint and avoid any kind of violence.

“Anger cannot and must not be expressed by blocking roads and burning tires and clashing with security and assaulting the freedoms of others,” he urged.

Hariri denounced an attack against a vehicle belonging to the satellite channel of al-Jazeera and regretted the confrontations between the protesters and Lebanese security and army personnel.

He warned the Lebanese against falling in what he described as a trap aimed at widening divisions among the country’s parties and cautioned against being “dragged behind slogans that call for violence.”

Hariri highlighted the significance of coexistence in Lebanon and the need for protecting the country’s national interests above any sectarian goal.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt had earlier urged Hariri to stop his supporters from flooding the streets, warning that “the streets will kill everyone and the repercussions will fall on all of us.”

Mikati won 68 votes out of the parliament’s 128 seats to be poised as the new prime minister.

Hariri’s government collapsed nearly two weeks ago following the resignation of 11 ministers from the coalition cabinet in a dispute over a US-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former Premier Rafiq Hariri.

Mikati, backed by the opposition March 8 alliance’s consensus, says he is stepping forward with a promise to cooperate with all parties in an attempt to help bring the country out of its current political stalemate.