The tents in downtown Beirut stand almost empty, their roofs newly reinforced with plastic covers for winter after the old ones fell apart. As stray cats snatch scraps of food, nearby shops and cafes starve for customers. A year after the Hezbollah-led opposition set up the so-called "tent city," the protest camp outside Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's headquarters has failed to unseat him. But it still stands, choking Beirut's once-vibrant downtown, and testifying to the long standoff between the U.S.-backed government and the opposition supported by Syria and Iran, a conflict that has thrown the country into its worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.Now, there's hope the tent city could be dismantled , if Lebanon's politicians can agree on a new president to fill the void left when pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term ended Nov. 23.
After months of deadlock over the presidency, some major factions have backed putting army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman in the post, boosting prospects for a deal.
Lebanon's complex politics don't make things easy: The constitution must be changed to allow a sitting commander to serve as president, a potentially contentious issue. A parliament session that had been planned for Friday was put off until Dec. 7 to give time for an amendment.
The tent protest began long before the presidential crisis arose and many expect that an agreement on a president would lead to its removal. In the meantime, the Lebanese capital's commercial heart suffers. The tents occupy two main squares in downtown Beirut _ Riyad Solh square and Martyrs' Square. Gone are the hundreds of thousands of opposition activists who rallied at the camp in its first weeks, shouting "down with Siniora" through loudspeakers. The maze of dozens of tents remains home to a skeleton staff of Hezbollah security agents and is surrounded by razor wire and armed troops to separate it from Siniora's office.
Together they have turned downtown into a ghost town at night, in sharp contrast to the recent past, when it was bustling with tourists and Lebanese alike who came to eat, drink, smoke waterpipes, stroll on newly rebuilt elegant streets and shop in fashionable boutiques. Now, people stay away for a range of reasons, the tent city is an eyesore, the traffic flow has been disrupted, and, of course, security concerns. Some businesses have gone bust or moved elsewhere. Those that remain have laid off employees and are barely operating. Business leaders are screaming for help after enduring a year of lost commerce and piling bills. "Before we used to say it is a show of democracy, but no one thought this could last a year," Tony Salameh, owner of a chic department store, said of the tent city. "The Arab tourists are no longer coming. Businesses are in despair and are moving out."
He and a group of about 200 business owners and employees recently staged a protest of their own, carrying banners reading "Have Mercy on Your Brothers and Families" and "Hands Off the Heart of Beirut."