In opposition, Lebanese find unity

"No one is visiting his house," says Jabbour Douaihy, a professor of literature at the Lebanese University who lives in the north. "The Sunnis in the north have turned against Syria. They are fed up with the Syrian presence there."

Hariri's flower-covered grave in Beirut has become a shrine, lit at night by dozens of candles and surrounded by hundreds of Lebanese maintaining a vigil day and night.

1Muslims read tiny copies of the Koran while Christians say prayers and make the sign of the cross. That communal accord also was apparent at Monday's anti-Syrian demonstration, the largest in Lebanese history.

"Frankly, I haven't seen a demonstration where all the Lebanese faiths participated since 1952," says Dory Chamoun, a leading opposition member whose father, Camille, was president in the 1950s. "We hope this will open up a new era of an independent Lebanon rid of all foreign troops."

But the absence of the Shiites, Lebanon's largest sect, has left a yawning gap in the ranks of the opposition.

Although some Lebanese Shiites have joined, the two dominant parties representing Shiite interests - the secular nationalist Amal Movement and the Iran-supported pan-Islamic Hizbullah organization - remain loyal to Lebanon's Syrian-backed government.

Amal, under the leadership of Nabih Berri, the parliamentary Speaker, has been a staunch ally of Syria since the early 1980s. Hizbullah, which ideologically is at odds with the secular pan- Arabism of Syria's ruling Baath Party, accepted Syrian dominance in Lebanon in 1990 as the price for being allowed to continue with its anti-Israeli agenda.

"It's worrying that the Shiites are [lagging] behind, because they can't afford to be," says Chibli Mallat, a professor at Beirut's St. Joseph University. "There's no room for dithering on Syria leaving."

Still, confronted by a growing opposition to Syrian hegemony, Hizbullah has adopted a nuanced approach, professing loyalty to Syria but not burning bridges with the opposition. It has sent delegations to the Maronite patriarch and held talks with the followers of Michel Aoun, a former Lebanese Army commander who lives in Paris and supports the dismantling of Hizbullah's military wing.

On Saturday, Hizbullah marked Ashura with a customary huge military parade through its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It was a potent symbol of the mass power wielded by the Shiites, which some commentators saw as a riposte to the strengthening opposition.

But in his speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's secretary-general, called for reconciliation and unity, and for learning the lessons of the civil war.

"We, as Lebanese, cannot resolve our crises and problems but by dialogue. We should not commit previous mistakes but learn from them," he said.

Although Hizbullah is unlikely to switch camps, analysts say that given its history of pragmatism and its robust political and social influence, it will adapt to the new realities in Lebanon if Syria were to withdraw.

"The good thing about Hizbullah is that their political discourse has been very moderate and they have won the respect and admiration of the opposition," says Abdo Saad, a Lebanese Shiite pollster. "Hizbullah has taken the initiative, which will be translated into dialogue with the opposition in the coming days. They want to find common ground."

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