Rival Pro- and Anti-Assad Rallies in Beirut
Hundreds of Lebanese and Syrian supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad held a sit-in in downtown Beirut on Saturday as a rival rally for anti-Assad protestors was held against violence in the neighboring country, according to the National News Agency.
Activists, intellectuals, and independent Syrian and Lebanese people rallied at the Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut in support of the “Syrian revolution.”
The protestors held the Syrian revolution’s flag and banners in support of the Syrian people, demanding their freedom and justice, other banners had the names of the Syrian cities.
The demonstrators shouted slogans calling for the “collapse of the Syrian regime.”
National Struggle Front bloc MP Akram Chehayeb, who is loyal to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid, Deputy Head al-Mustaqbal Movement Antoine Andraous, al-Mustaqbal Movement official Mohammed al-Murad and media figures were present at the rally.
The pro-Assad demonstration was held simultaneously in al-Debbas Square in downtown Beirut.
The protestors waved the Syrian flag, Assad’s picture, in addition to AMAL flags.
At least 9,100 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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