Lebanon MP urges weapons ban in northern city

A leading opposition figure on Sunday urged Lebanon's new government to ban weapons from the northern city of Tripoli, after weekend clashes over an anti-Syria rally left seven dead. MP Fuad Siniora, a leading figure of the US and Saudi-backed opposition and a former prime minister, also warned that "unrest is dormant" in the Sunni Muslim city, which also houses a minority Alawite community. "Tripoli must become a city that is free of all arms, and that must be implemented immediately," Siniora told reporters. Headed by former prime minister Saad Hariri, Lebanon's opposition has refused to join the country's new government, which was announced Monday after a five-month vacuum, on grounds it is "Hezbollah's cabinet." The appointment in January of Najib Mikati to premiership, a post reserved for a Sunni Muslim in multi-confessional Lebanon, with the blessing of Shiite militant Hezbollah sparked the ire of Hariri's supporters. But Siniora on Sunday said he and his allies would support Mikati in making sure the streets of Tripoli were free of arms. "We will stand by the government ... should they work for that end," he said. "The army and security forces must deal with all attempts to incite unrest firmly." A soldier and a 14-year-old boy were among those killed this weekend in clashes in Tripoli between Alawites and Sunnis. Twenty-five people were also wounded in the fighting which erupted hours after some 600 demonstrators gathered for a protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Alawite. After five months of political wrangling, Mikati announced the formation of a government on Monday in which Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah and its allies control 18 out of 30 cabinet seats.