His interview coincided in time with an opposition rally in the city heart. Protesters demanded the government dismissed, Syrian troops pulled out, and the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri for international investigation.
The Cabinet sides with the opposition demand for the assassination thoroughly detected, reassured the minister. Lebanese authorities are willing to join hands with anyone of help to detect the Beirut crime of a week ago-in particular, with the United Nations Security Council. The government, however, does not want international investigation. The initiative boils down to a suspicion of the Lebanese top unwilling to see the assassination successfully detected. If the government agrees to international investigation, it will thus prove the assumption, pointed out Mr. Ferzeli.
He discerns influences from without behind opposition activities, which "expose Lebanon to any kind of developments, some of them extremely dangerous. We are against such opposition moves that may lead to a coup d'etat," said the minister.
He strongly warned against regarding current Lebanese developments as analogous to recent Ukrainian.
An election is the only road Lebanon can take now. If it repeats the Ukrainian scenario for a change of regime, that may lead to another war. The Hariri assassination came as part of a plot to set the country on fire. None others than forces outside Lebanon are out to steep it into a conflict, said the Information Minister, without specifying just whom he meant.
