BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Amid mounting street tensions that threaten Lebanon's civilian peace, the anti-Syria coalition backing the government has taken a path to ease the strain.
Druze leader Waleed Jumblatt, whose Progressive Socialist Party is a member of the pro-Western March 14 Coalition, called on "citizens and partisans to stay calm and exercise self-restraint because that is the right way to abort strife."
In a press conference Tuesday, Jumblatt urged the opposing pro-Syria camp led by Hezbollah to return to dialogue, stressing "there is no deadlock in politics and there is only room for discussion and settlement based on the logic of no winner and no loser."
Jumblatt's call for calm coincided with open sit-in and street protests led by Hezbollah and its allies, the Shiite Amal Movement of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Free Patriotic Movement of Christian Gen. Michel Aoun, to bring down the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
The street protests took a dangerous turn in the past two days with street clashes between partisans of the rival camps in which one was killed and several injured.
"Rockets and militias do not lead the country to any result, only dialogue does... We know they are receiving arms and money from Iran through the Syrian regime," Jumblatt said in reference to Hezbollah.
In a reassuring note, the Druze leader, allied to the Future Movement of Saad Hariri, son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the Christian Lebanese Forces led by Samir Geagea, said "the fate of Hezbollah's arms can only be settled through dialogue."
Jumblatt again lashed out at what he called "the terrorist" Syrian regime, accusing Damascus of interfering in Lebanon to incite civil strife.
"The conduct of the Syrian regime towards Lebanon is that of a gang... not of a country dealing with another country," he opined.
