Clashes in Lebanon as PM Mikati Resignation Accepted

By Erika Solomon Beirut (Antara/Reuters) - Clashes were reported in Lebanon on Saturday as outgoing prime minister Najib Mikati called for a "salvation" caretaker government to take over, a day after he resigned due to a political standoff with the Hezbollah movement. Local media reported that President Michel Suleiman accepted Mikati's resignation, a move which could plunge Lebanon into further turmoil and uncertainty three months before a planned parliamentary election. The politically volatile country is struggling to cope with a spillover of violence and a wave of refugees from the two-year-old civil war in Syria, the country's larger neighbour which has close ties to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Sporadic clashes erupted for a third day in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli. Sniper fire killed one man and wounded two others, residents said. Mikati's resignation on Friday came after a ministerial meeting was deadlocked by a dispute with Hezbollah. The Shi'ite militant and political movement has dominated Lebanese politics in recent years and helped put Mikati into office after toppling the previous government. "Now it is important for dialogue to begin and for a salvation government to be established during this difficult period," Mikati wrote on his official Twitter page after handing in his resignation to the president. "I thank God that I left office the same way I came in, with integrity." Hezbollah opposed extending the term of a senior security official, Major General Ashraf Rifi, and the creation of an oversight body for the planned June election, which may now be delayed after the collapse of Mikati's government. Rifi, head of Lebanon's internal security forces, is due to retire early next month. He, like Mikati, is a Sunni Muslim from Tripoli, and is distrusted by Hezbollah.(*)