BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Political tension is rising in Lebanon as the Hezbollah-led opposition plans to escalate its protest with a general strike that could paralyze the country.
The opposition Monday urged the closure of all commercial and public institutions on Tuesday to further pressure Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government to submit to its demands.
The opposition, which includes Hezbollah's allies from the Shiite Amal movement and Christian Gen. Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, has been staging a sit-in in central Beirut for the past six weeks seeking a new coalition government with greater opposition participation or early elections.
A series of opposition statements vowed to boycott all shops that open and warned if people attempted to go to work, they might not be able to return home, indicating their supporters would seal off main roads in the country, especially in the capital.
Prime Minister Siniora, in a news conference Monday, blasted the opposition for holding a strike only days before an international donor conference is due to convene in Paris Thursday for Lebanon's reconstruction in the aftermath of last summer's war with Israel that destroyed much of its infrastructure and further hurt its ailing economy.
He accused the opposition of "terrorizing" people and urged them not to heed to the strike calls. Siniora's allies in the parliamentary majority and financial institutions joined his call on the people to go to work and not paralyze the country.
