Lebanon's Hariri Calls for New Government, Economic Reforms to Appease Protests

BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2020) Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Saad Hariri, whose government resigned last fall amid mass protests against rampant corruption and economic mismanagement, said on Sunday that the ongoing rallies would sooner be calmed by a new cabinet and reforms than deterrence by the police and army.

"There is a way to calm the popular storm. Stop wasting time, form a government and give way to political and economic solutions," Hariri said on Twitter.

According to the politician, "keeping the army and police in a state of confrontation with protesters amounts to beating around the bush rather than a proper solution."

On Saturday, what began as a peaceful rally in Beirut soon grew violent, as protesters attempted to storm the parliament building's fences and threw stones and firecrackers at law enforcement.

Police fired tear gas and water canons to disperse them. The army joined them shortly later, as per the president's order. Clashes left more than 165 injured.

Mass protests engulfed Lebanon last October amid a crippling economic crisis. People have been demanding urgent reforms to end the deepening liquidity crisis, which the country's president has blamed on sanctions. The resignation of Hariri's government in late-October failed to remove people from the streets. In absence of a new cabinet ever since, the Lebanese watch their national Currency continue plummeting against the US Dollar, having lost more than 60 percent of its value so far.