The Last-Minute Mobilization

March 14 leaders finally got the green line to unleash their angry masses.

Coming soon…

The Facebook event has been around for a while. Thousands of Lebanese grass root activists had committed themselves to taking down the streets to commemorate the third anniversary of February 14, the day when Prime Minister Hariri was assassinated. But something important was missing.

March 14 leaders where holding back from an all-out public call to mobilization, which everyone knows is the real crowd turner in Lebanon. Mr. Hariri, Mr. Geagea, Mr. Jumblat and Mr. Jemayyel were apparently giving talks a chance. If an agreement was reached, then perhaps February 14 could have passed as a low key event with mellow crowds (which would be large nonetheless)

But something happened that let March 14 abruptly re-think their plans. Sources close to the Future Movement told me that worldwide February 14 commemorations were expecting March 14 Mps to attend, but they cancelled at the last minute because Mr. Hariri asked them to stay in Lebanon to maximize turnout. The call for mobilization by March 14 honchos was strong and portrayed high stakes.

Apparently, there’s now a big diplomatic “push”, lead by the Saudis against Syria, that was designed to “Stir things up” against Syrian blockage. According to today’s pan-Arab Alhayat:

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????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? «????? ?????» ?? ???? ??????? ???????? ????? ??????? ?? ????????? ?????? ??? «????? ??????? ??????? ?? ??? ?? ????????? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ????????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ????????». ????? ??????? ?? ????????? ?? ??????? «?????? ?? ??????? ???????? ????????? ???????? ???? ?????? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ???????».

Click here to read an automatic translation of the article to English.

In short, this is all about a renewed Arab-French effort to send Syria the message that they’ve had it with all its stalling. The idea is to make a big push for Lebanon by a combination of March 14 street action and Arab threats to boycott the Damascus Arab summit. Still the question remains: will it work?