Najib Miqati to resign.Following the funeral nearby of slain Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Internal Security Forces' Intelligence Bureau, "young people headed towards the building in the city center, but security forces blocked them by firing into the air and using tear gas," a policeman on the scene told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The group was estimated at a couple of hundred people.
During funeral orations for slain Maj. Gen. al-Hasan and his bodyguard Chief Warrant Officer Ahmed Suhyooni, former premier Fouad Saniora called on Miqati to resign and stressed that the March 14 forces will not engage in dialogue before the government's departure.
Also during the funeral, an angry pro-March 14 journalist, Nadim Qteish, called on mourners to head to the Grand Serail.
Clashes stopped around half an hour later, after opposition chief ex-PM Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
and Saniora urged protesters to refrain from storming the Grand Serail and to end the confrontation.
"We are not advocates of violence and I call on all supporters to leave the streets immediately," said Hariri in a televised appeal.
"It is true that we demanded to topple the government, but we want to this matter to be done in a peaceful manner," Hariri added.
"We want to keep Leb safe, a country for freedom and democracy. I reiterate my request to all supporters to depart immediately and I will ask security officers in charge of the Center House to protect the Grand Serail because what happened is totally unacceptable," he announced.
For his part, Saniora said: "We express our great appreciation for the feelings of the citizens, but the use of violence is unacceptable."
Saniora noted that "the Grand Serail is a building for the Lebanese state and we must protect it."
"This approach is unacceptable and does not serve our cause," he added.