Lebanese authorities on Wednesday banned rallies for or against Syria's ruling regime, as a pan-Islamic group insisted it would go ahead with a demonstration in support of Syrian protesters.
"We have decided not to approve any requests for demonstrations as they fail to meet legal conditions," the north Lebanon branch of the national security council, grouping security bodies and local governors, said in a statement.
It did not detail the conditions but several officials have warned against holding rallies, which could be considered interference in the affairs of neighboring Syria.
The council urged all parties to keep Syria-linked rallies off the streets and limited to "unlocked halls or arenas in coordination with security forces and military in order to preserve the civil peace in Tripoli and the north."
Pan-Islamic group Hezb Ut-Tahrir has called for a rally after Friday prayers in Tripoli, a Sunni stronghold in north Lebanon, to support Syrian demonstrators who since March have protested against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Sixteen members of the party were arrested earlier this week for posting leaflets calling for protests.
"The local branch of the security council has informed us that our gathering this Friday should take place inside an assembly hall and not in the street," Hezb Ut-Tahrir's Lebanon spokesperson Ahmad Kasas told AFP on Wednesday.
"But our decision has been made and we will not give in."
Kasas said the Lebanese military intelligence bureau had informed the party that the 16 people arrested would be freed on condition that the anti-Assad rally be called off.
Hezb Ut-Tahrir (Arabic for "Party of Liberation") is an international movement which seeks to restore a caliphate by uniting all Muslim countries under a single Islamic rule.
Ending a 29-year-old military deployment, Damascus pulled its troops out of Lebanon in the wake of the 2005 assassination of Sunni ex-premier Rafik Hariri. Syria has denied any role in the assassination.
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