As Reform Deadline Nears

Lebanon Protesters Keep Pressure on Gov’t

Date: 20 October 2019 - 21:31

News ID: ۷۱۸۶۰

BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Protesters in Lebanon flooded the streets on Sunday, keeping pressure on Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri as a self-imposed deadline to deliver a package of badly needed reforms for the country’s crumbling economy drew near.
Anti-government protests that have swept the country since Thursday have pulled together all segments of Lebanese society in an unusually unified call for the downfall of a political elite that protesters blame for plunging the economy into crisis.
On Sunday demonstrators clogged streets across the country for a fourth day with marches resembling outdoor festivals. Loudspeakers blared nationalistic music as energized protesters chanted calls for the government’s fall.
"I didn’t expect people from the country’s north, south and Beirut to join hands and like each other. The protests have brought together everyone and this has never happened before,” said Sahar Younis, a 32-year-old worker with a non-governmental organization.
Hariri, who is leading a coalition government mired by sectarian and political rivalries, gave his feuding partners a 72-hour deadline on Friday to agree to reforms that could ward off economic crisis, hinting he may otherwise resign.
He accused his rivals of obstructing budget measures that could unlock $11 billion in Western donor pledges and help avert economic collapse.
A political party with links to the United States and Saudi Arabia ordered its ministers to resign from the government of Hariri.
The Lebanese Forces (LF), a parliamentary bloc with four ministers in the government, said on Saturday that the party had reached the conclusion after a meeting in the village of Maarab that Hariri’s government was no longer capable of solving the economic problems of the country.
LF leader Samir Geagea said in a televised speech from the party’s headquarters that he had ordered the four ministers to leave Hariri’s cabinet by submitting their resignation.
Geagea said the decision was meant to pave the way for the formation of a new government, adding that the current administration lacked the "intention” to carry out reforms demanded by protesters on the streets.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that he was against any move to settle political scores at the time of financial hardships that has fueled the protests.
Nasrallah said Hariri’s government was supposed to remain in office and shoulder responsibility for the current problems.

Lebanese protesters continued to head to the streets to take part in what is rapidly turning into an uprising for economic and social reforms.