Lebanon was plunged into uncertainty this week with the collapse of the country's national unity government led by Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.
Hariri was ousted Wednesday after 11 ministers walked out of his cabinet in protest at Hariri's refusal to convene a cabinet session to discuss imminent indictments by an international tribunal investigating the killing of the country's former leader, Rafik al-Hariri
A hybrid U.N.-Lebanese court will shortly indict members of Hezbollah, widely viewed as Lebanon's most powerful party, in the 2005 assassination.
The country's opposition leader, Hezbollah's Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, ordered the ministers — members of the March 8 alliance — to abandon the cabinet. The move that has been condemned by the U.S. and Britain and sparked alarm across the Sunni Arab world.
Hariri, acting as Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, has vowed to work with Michel Sleiman, the president, on forming a new government. But few think a new cabinet is a possibility until a compromise is found in the dispute.
Hariri, the son of the slain former prime minister, said on Friday that the country's rival political factions had no alternative but to enter into dialogue. "There is no alternative for all of us but dialogue, and no side in Lebanon will be able to eliminate the other," Hariri said, according to Al Jazeera.
Hariri returned to Beirut on Friday after talks in the United States, France and Turkey aimed at rallying support for his March 14 alliance.
Hariri's coalition won a majority in a 2009 election but since then Druze leader Waleed Jumblatt, who was Hariri's strongest ally and who heads a bloc of 11 deputies within Hariri's coalition, has declared himself neutral.
Under Lebanon's power sharing system, the president must be a Maronite, prime minister a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.
Meanwhile, GlobalPost took to the streets of Beirut to ask ordinary Lebanese their views on events:
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