Cabinet has decided to rebaptize a thoroughfare named after former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in favor of late Lebanese musician and playwright Ziad Rahbani, a move many welcomed on Wednesday.

The decision marks the end of an era and a rupture with the authoritarian rule of former Syrian leaders Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar -- close allies of Lebanon's Hezbollah -- who from Damascus held Lebanon in a stranglehold for almost three decades.