BEIRUT: Lebanese politicians expressed support Sunday for the recent actions of anti-Israel protesters in Cairo. Nabatieh MP Mohammad Raad, who heads the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, spoke about the developments in Egypt during a ceremony held by Jbaa municipality in honor of students who passed their official exams.

“When the Egyptian people took action, the U.S. seized the opportunity to overthrow Hosni Mubarak … in order to get rid of him and project an image of themselves as supporters of popular uprisings, change and democracy. But it seems that the Egyptian people have realized what the U.S. has planned,” Raad said.

The Hezbollah official stressed that the U.S. cannot control the people’s actions because “the people do not want what the U.S. wants for Egypt.”

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Salim Hoss said that the protesters’ actions “registered positions that truly gratified and honored the nation.”

He said that Friday’s event, during which protesters tore down a concrete wall surrounding the Israeli embassy in Cairo, “was a violent grassroots campaign … The Israeli flag was torn down, lit on fire, and then replaced by the Egyptian one.”

After the protests, Israel recalled its ambassador, and Egyptian officials have said that three people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured when protesters and police clashed.

“The Israeli ambassador had to leave his headquarters and the country under the pressure of events, which is not regrettable,” said Hoss. “All this happened to reaffirm that Cairo is still the capital of Arab dignity and that the Egyptian people remain the guardian of Arab nationalism. They are a good example for all Arabs.”

Protests at the Israeli embassy in Cairo have been ongoing since last month, when a protester climbed a flagpole and replaced the Israeli flag with Egypt’s, but protests did not turn violent until Friday.