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Riot police officers face Hezbollah supporters in Beirut on October 25, 2019. REUTERS / Mohamed Azakir

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has announced that the 9-day popular protest movement in Lebanon is no longer spontaneous but manipulated to serve regional and international political agendas.

With our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh

After a long dissection and analysis of the reasons for the dispute and its probable evolution, Hassan Nasrallah pronounced his verdict: the movement is no longer spontaneous, it has been recovered by political forces to serve regional and international agendas.

While offering protesters a roadmap based on dialogue with President Michel Aoun around social and economic issues, the Hezbollah leader opposed the government's change and the regime's collapse. This path will provoke, according to him, a vacuum at the level of power that will inevitably lead to chaos.

Hassan Nasrallah has expressed his fears of a plan to plunge Lebanon into civil war to weaken Hezbollah, questioning the origin of funds used to fund the protest movement. He claimed to have a list of names of those who support him financially, assuring that they are not less corrupt than those whose protesters claim the fall.

Nasrallah's televised speech was preceded by violent clashes in downtown Beirut between supporters and opponents of Hezbollah.
After the end of Hassan Nasrallah's speech, thousands of his supporters and those of the President of the Republic took to the streets of Beirut and other cities in the country.