BEIRUT: While March 8 parties are openly supportive of ongoing Egyptian protests seeking the ouster of Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak, many rival March 14 factions said they believe it’s best to stay out of an internal Egyptian issue.

Joseph Nehme, who is in charge of the Lebanese Forces (LF) foreign relations bureau, said his party would not interfere in an internal Egyptian affair.

The LF official paid tribute to Mubarak and to Egypt for supporting the stances of the LF and March 14 coalition, “which call for strengthening the Lebanese state.”

“It is in our interest that Egypt remains a moderate state and that its pioneering stance in the region does not change. Egypt is a friend of the Lebanese Forces and March 14 coalition because they are interested in building a state in Lebanon,” Nehme said.

However, Nehme also urged the Egyptian government to address the economic concerns of the Egyptian people, saying the will of these people should prevail.

Asked whether the LF supported calls by protestors for Mubarak’s resignation, Nehme said the LF was against violating constitutions.

“President Mubarak said he will not run for a new term and that his son will not succeed him, his term will expire in September and we hope that Vice President Omar Suleiman will lead the country to a new stage,” he said.

Ayman Jezzini, a spokesperson for the Future Movement, said his party would not issue a statement commenting on the developments in Egypt because it rejected any intervention in Egyptian affairs.

“I demand that no one interferes in Lebanon’s affairs, so why would I interfere in what’s happening in Egypt?” asked Jezzini.

“What is taking place [in Egypt] is a revolution by the oppressed against the oppressors, we in Lebanon believe that Hezbollah is the oppressor and we are the oppressed,” he continued.

Serge Dagher, the Kataeb (Phalange) party spokesperson, told The Daily Star that the party was with the right of people to self determination.

Asked whether he supported the ouster of Mubarak, Dagher said he did not want to interfere in an internal Egyptian matter.

“We are having problems with all sides interfering in our affairs, and that’s why we will not meddle in Egyptian affairs,” he said.

He said the Kataeb had not issued a statement because “we are busy with the Lebanese situation.”

On the other side of the political divide, March 8 parties have been supportive of Egyptian protesters, although some avoid making stringent denunciations of Mubarak or his regime.

Mohammad Fneish, the caretaker minister of state for administrative development, said that Hezbollah had expressed its position on the demonstrations earlier in the week, when Sheikh Naim Qassem, the party’s deputy secretary-general, had saluted the resistance of the Egyptian people.

“We should salute the resisting and proud Egyptian people who have set an example in rejecting normalization with Israel and in their continuous aspiration for freedom, independence and glory,” Qassem said.

The leader of the Amal Movement, Speaker Nabih Berri, said Wednesday that history will be merciless with any leader that stands against his people.

“We have to learn in this [Middle] East that the true position stems from the people … we have to learn that this era survives only with democracy, it is time for us to pay attention to this and implement it,” Berri added.

Pierre Raffoul, from Kesrouan MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, said the movement supported the “immediate resignation of Mubarak.”

“Our position was announced by [Former] General [Michel] Aoun, such regimes do not represent the will of their people,” he said, and criticized Mubarak supporters’ attacks on demonstrators.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, maverick Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has been outspoken in his criticism of the regime and its long-time president, after an earlier period of good relations with Cairo.

The Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader reiterated his call for Mubarak to resign Thursday.

“It would be much better for the Egyptian president to step down in compliance with the will of the people, instead of showing this ugly scene of horses and camels in Tahrir square which reminded us of the Janjaweed gangs,” Jumblatt said in a statement, referring to attacks by pro-regime militias in Sudan’s Darfur province.

Supporters of Mubarak have assaulted demonstrators in Cairo over the last two days, with 10 Egyptians reported killed so far.

Jumblatt said that Egypt and its people deserve “freedom, bread and dignified life after all those long years of oppression.” Jumblatt said all political factions should participate in Egyptian political life, based on a new formula determined by the Egyptian people.

The PSP leader warned the Egyptian opposition against engaging in a compromise with the regime “because it will waste efforts and divide ranks … and the revolution will be lost and will die before completing its path and [reaching its] results.”

Jumblatt described the protests in Egypt as “something good,” during an interview with LBC TV Thursday.

“The Egyptian people have awakened and demanded freedom at their own will, the uprising was not led by intellectuals, or the parties that turned out to be underdeveloped, but by the Egyptian youth,” Jumblatt said.

Jumblatt said that the spread of information technology and social media such as Facebook had helped to launch the nationwide protests.

He said the west was only interested in serving the interests of Israel and making sure that any new president in Egypt would not abandon the Camp David Peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Jumblatt said the U.S. had lost a major base in the region as a result of what happened in Tunisia and Egypt.

The PSP leader urged Arab states in the Persian Gulf to provide Egypt with financial assistance to prevent the U.S. “from imprisoning Egypt under the slogan of supporting it.”

Despite the stances by major political parties, none has actively encouraged its supporters to take part en masse at demonstrations that have been held in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut.

Khaled Hadadeh, the head of the Lebanese Communist Party, expressed support “without reservation” for the Egyptian protestors.

“We support without any reservation the movement of the Egyptian people to topple the regime of dependency, treason and impoverishment,” he told The Daily Star.

He said that what happened in Egypt would lead to serious changes in the region. “The entire [Arab] state order will cease to exist, and will be replaced by a new liberation movement,” Hadadeh said.

Asked why so few people were taking part in daily protests in support of the Egyptian demonstrators near the embassy in Beirut, Hadadeh said this movement would grow with time.

“We called for a meeting for the national factions today [Thursday] and there is another meeting tomorrow [Friday] to follow up on the movement of the Egyptian people,” Hadadeh said, adding that a national conference would be held later.

A statement issued after the meeting, which was held at the Communist Party’s headquarters in Beirut, described the uprising in Egypt as part of a nationalist movement that “looks forward to a comprehensive Arab renaissance after the official Arab state order fell short of fulfilling the ambitions of Arab people in liberation, progress and unity.”

Separately, the Follow up Committee of Civil Society in Lebanon urged the international community to press for the unseating of Mubarak and to hold the Egyptian regime accountable for the killing of demonstrators.