BEIRUT: Lebanese militant Muslim preacher Omar Bakri called on President Bashar Assad to step down and let the Syrians decide their fate Friday, as protesters in Tripoli burned Iranian flags in a sign of solidarity with the Syrian protestors.
“Bakri asked President Bashar Assad to release all prisoners and invite people to hold a national referendum to decide who their president should be with the supervision of experts from different countries … after he [Assad] resigns over blood spills and transfers power to the military council,” Bakri’s press office said Friday.
Bakri also asked Assad to facilitate the process of a referendum to secure a peaceful transfer of power that, according to Bakri, should be done within a set period of time.
"Assad had said before that he was willing to step down and give up power if he realized that the majority of people don’t want him,” Bakri said, adding that regardless of what the outcome was, it would be representative of the voice of the “defiant” Syrian people.
Bakri is a controversial preacher with joint Lebanese-Syrian nationality. He spent 20 years preaching in Britain following involvement with Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb Ut-Tahrir in Lebanon
Meanwhile, weekly protests in Tripoli in support of the Syrian people took place Friday, with demonstrators burning the Iranian flag in protest at the “Persian project in the Arab region.”
During the Friday sermon, Hamza Mosque’s Imam Zakaria al-Masri condemned the security crackdown on protests in Syria, adding that the Baath party is part of an Iranian project in the region.
“The [Syrian people] have tolerated the Baath party for more than 40 years, [including] its oppression, suppression and attempts to alter the [Syrian people's] religious and Arab identity for the sake of the Iranian republic and its Persian project in the Arab region,” Masri said.
Masri also asked Prime Minister Najib Mikati to reject the project of establishing an Iranian empire in the Arab world at the expense of his people and religion.
Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese Army boosted their presence along the rally route in Tripoli Friday and also patrolled the city.