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| 10/05/2008 The intensity of armed clashes eased down in Beirut with Lebanese army units deploying in the capital. In other areas, the situation is still tense with more than 15 people killed. Meanwhile, Mustakbal and Progressive Socialist Party militiamen are handing over their offices to the Lebanese army in Mount Lebanon, Bekaa, Western Bekaa, Chouf and south Lebanon.
The relative calm on the ground cleared the way for political action in Lebanon, the region and abroad.
What's next?
Sources close to Speaker Nabih Berri said he told Arab League Chief Amr Mussa during a telephone call that the only solution is dialogue and the withdrawal of Fouad Saniora's unconstitutional government decisions on the resistance's communications network and the removal of Beirut International Airport security chief Wafiq Shqeir.
Arab Foreign Ministers are scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting on Sunday over Lebanon.
Berri asked Mussa about the feasibility of the meeting. Mussa replied: Internationalization of the Lebanon file.
Berri's response was that Lebanon has been internationalized since 30 years. Qatari PM Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani underlined that the Arab ministerial meeting will not achieve much if an agreement among the Lebanese was not reached.
On the ground, the opposition cleared the way for the Lebanese army to control the capital, which came back to life after two days of fighting. The road leading to the airport is still closed and the Beirut port has stopped operating until further notice.
On the political and security levels, the Future Movement, abandoned by its allies, is collapsing at fast pace. Saniora and some of his ministers are entrenched in the Grand Serail. The so called "March 14" leadership met at Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea's residence in Me'rab and issued a tense rhetorical statement, which did not state any procedural steps. Geagea and his colleagues visited Saniora yesterday to give him morale. But the unconstitutional PM was clearly withered. Still, most of the ruling bloc are still reluctant to respond to Berri's call for dialogue.
Pending Sunday's Arab meeting in Cairo, the United States said it wants to consult "Lebanon's neighbors" and the UN Security Council on "measures" in the framework of holding "those responsible for the latest violence accountable." Washington, which recently deployed destroyers in the Mediterranean, settled for backing Saniora and his ruling bloc politically and diplomatically ruling out any military backing for the time being. In the meantime, some Arab governments called on Saniora to resign as a prelude to solving the crisis. A Yemeni proposal also suggested holding dialogue under the care of Lebanese Army Commander General Michel Suleiman. However Saudi Arabia made extensive pressure to withdraw this proposal from circulation.
Paris, for its part, said that there can only be a political solution in Lebanon. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who condemned the incidents in Beirut, said he contacted Saniora, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos, Italy's FM Franco Frattini and AL chief Amr Mussa, to discuss development in Lebanon. | 
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