Lebanon apologized Monday to Denmark after demonstrators set fire to its embassy in Beirut. The Lebanese Cabinet apologized following a late Sunday emergency meeting. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi stated the government had unanimously "rejected and condemned the acts of riots ... that harmed Lebanon's reputation and its civilized image and the noble aim of the demonstration."
Hassan Sabeh, Lebanon's Interior Minister, resigned from his post on Sunday following the violent demonstrations in Beirut in protest of the ongoing controversy over a series of Danish cartoons negatively depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
Sabeh expressed that his resignation was a result of his reluctance to order Lebanese security forces to fire on protesters.
"I did not want to be responsible for any carnage,” has said, according to Xinhuanet.
Several thousand protesters had initially demonstrated peacefully outside the consulate. However, clashes ensued after some protesters attempted to break through barriers surrounding the consulate complex, which was then torched, in addition to several automobiles nearby.
Water cannons and tear gas were used by some 1,000 riot police to disperse the demonstrators. Dozens were injured in the clashes. At least one person died, officials said. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the arrested included 76 Syrians, 35 Palestinians and 38 Lebanese.
A similar incident occurred in Syria the day before, in which the embassies of both Denmark and Norway were set alight. Norway and Denmark called on their citizens to leave Syria as a result.
In Israel, Arab demonstrators on Monday marched outside the Danish embassy in Tel Aviv in a show of solidarity. On Saturday, some 500 protesters in the north of the country also gathered to show disapproval of the cartoons.
Some 200 demonstrators in Iran threw stones at the Austrian Embassy in Tehran, breaking windows and throwing firecrackers that started small fires. The demonstration lasted two hours, AP reported.
Several thousand Iraqis rallied in the south of the country, burning Danish, German and Israeli flags, as well as an effigy of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to demand diplomatic and economic ties be severed with countries in which the caricatures were published.
Calls for calm
Sweden's Foreign Minister Laijla Fraivaldar called on Monday for the European Union and the Arab world to cooperate in an attempt to ease growing tension worldwide over the publication of the cartoons.
She also called on Arabs and the EU to end the violence which had spread throughout the world as a result of controversy over the publication, according to Reuters.
A wave of protests have occurred throughout the Middle East and the world following the publication of the derogatory cartoons. The publication later apologized for the insensitivity of the images to the Muslim community.
Meanwhile, the prime ministers of Spain and Turkey appealed for calm in a column in the International Herald Tribune, saying: "We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation, which can only leave a trail of mistrust and misunderstanding between both sides in its wake."
Palestinian rights activists forced to leave
Meanwhile in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinians expressed their anger by storming European institutions, smashing the windows of a German cultural center, and burning German and Danish flags, chanting, "With our blood and souls we defend you, O Prophet."
The protests and fear of further violence forced Danish activists for Palestinian rights working in the Palestinian territories to shut their offices due to threats against them.
So too, a Danish and French observer team in the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt worked instead from the neighboring Israeli city of Ashkelon where they would be out of harm’s way.
Journalist as well remained away from the Gaza Strip due to the violence.
Meanwhile, Fatah related groups apologized to nuns and a priest of a local Roman Catholic school in Gaza for threats against them earlier in the week. The men handed clergy red carnations as a sign of regret for the threats.
"We came to show that we are united, Muslims and Christians, and that we oppose assaulting our Christian brothers," said one gunman holding flowers, reported Haaretz.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
