Pub and restaurant owners in downtown Beirut have been angered by pro-Syrian opposition protestors who have been camping out since December 1 in their street, accusing them of bothering their clients and stopping their businesses.Businessmen who own restaurants or pubs which serve alcohol decided last week to defy the open-ended protests by the opposition, which are led by the radical Islamic Hezbollah and their allies the Shiite Amal movement, and started to open their doors for their regular clients.
When the opposition decided to camp out in the streets of the two main squares in the luxurious downtown area of Beirut to force the anti-Syrian government to resign, most pubs and restaurants in the area were forced to close.