Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys...
forces on Sunday officially announced their refusal to take part in the country's new government.
The March 14 forces "reject to legitimize the coup ... and reject to turn into observers who cannot prevent violations," the coalition said in a statement recited by ex-PM Fouad Saniora after an extraordinary meeting for its 60 MPs at the Bristol Hotel in Beirut.
Outgoing premier Saad Hariri, Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
leader
Samir Geagea... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ...
and Phalange Party
The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology.
leader Amin Gemayel also took part in the meeting.
On January 12, Hizbullah and its allies toppled Saad Hariri's cabinet in a long-running feud over the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb.
Hizbullah-backed Najib Miqati was then appointed to form a new government, which Hariri's alliance has refused to join and has labeled "Hizbullah's government".
Hariri had refused to join Miqati's government without guarantees that his cabinet will see the tribunal through.
Hizbullah meanwhile is demanding Leb end all cooperation with the court, which it says is a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy.
While Hariri and his allies won Leb's last parliamentary election in 2009, shifting alliances today have positioned the Hizbullah-led camp as the majority after Druze leader
Walid WallyJumblat
... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times...
moved closer to the Shiite party.
"The way the national unity cabinet was toppled and the atmospheres of intimidation ... created by the March 8 forces
... the opposition to the Mar. 14th movement, consisting of Hizbullah and its allies, so-called in commemoration of their Mar. 8th, 2006 demonstration of strength in Beirut ...
during the process of parliamentary consultations and designation (of Miqati) have confirmed our doubts that the March 8 forces is pressing on with its coup," March 14 said in its statement.
The coalition accused the Hizbullah-led camp of "undermining all attempts to form a balanced government through crippling the mechanism of cabinet formation by impossible conditions."
The March 14 forces also accused the rival camp of "infringing on the powers of the president and the premier-designate, which threatens the role of constitutional authorities and the powers, image and efficiency of state institutions."
The alliance stressed that "it considers what happened during the designation process, and what is happening during the formation process, as a coup against the Constitution and the democratic system which is taking place under the influence of (Hizbullah's) arms."
The March 14 camp vowed to confront the alleged "coup" through "all means available in the framework of its commitment to the practice of democracy."
"Out of their insistence on confronting and thwarting the coup, and in light of the PM-designate's inability to provide clear answers, the gathered MPs have decided to announce their refusal to take part in the upcoming government and to launch a peaceful, democratic opposition movement in order to defend the republic and protect the Constitution," March 14's statement went on to say.
On Saturday, Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported that another meeting for the March 14 forces will be held in order to outline the components of the new opposition, which will be comprised of parties, movements, and individuals.
March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Saturday that the March 14 leadership will hold a meeting on March 6 at the Bristol Hotel to announce a political document and roadmap that the forces will adopt.
Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch...
a March 14 source told An-Nahar that the camp did not sense any new position in Miqati's recent statements in Tripoli, "but he repeated the same wooden statements on justice and the truth while the March 8 forces is preparing a ministerial statement devoid of any reference to the Special Tribunal for Leb and the arms possession outside the state."