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Despite the soothing rhetoric and promises of change and reform of three heavyweights of Lebanese politics, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the leader of the largest Christian party Gebran Bassil, the anger of the Lebanese against the political class does not fall and the mobilization does not weaken.
With our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh
In an eagerly awaited intervention, the Hezbollah leader has clearly opposed this Saturday, October 19, the resignation of the government as claimed for three days thousands of demonstrators throughout Lebanon. Hassan Nasrallah described the protesters' social and economic demands as "legitimate", but warned against any attempt at political exploitation of the protest movement.
The Hezbollah leader's speech was badly received by the protesters, as were those before him, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, son-in-law and dauphin of President Michel Aoun.
Multiplication of incidents
This Saturday, the mobilization has not weakened. In Beirut and the big cities, hundreds of demonstrators occupied the squares, chanting slogans demanding the departure of the political class accused of corruption. The whole country was paralyzed, with the closing of the main thoroughfares using burnt tires and barricades.
In the southern city of Tire in southern Lebanon, gunmen attacked scores of people chanting slogans hostile to parliament speaker Nabih Berry, the state's most important Shiite figure. Faced with the proliferation of incidents, the Lebanese army issued a statement urging protesters to preserve the " peaceful " nature of their movement and not to damage public and private property.
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