The Lebanese capital Beirut and the city of Tripoli in the north and other Lebanese regions have been witnessing for days a wave of protests, mainly demanding that the government and the forces forming it take decisive and decisive decisions regarding the deteriorating economic situation.
The protests erupted last Thursday in several cities after the collapse of the lira, which lost about 70% of its value since October, when Lebanon drowned in a financial crisis that caused deteriorating living conditions.
The center of the capital witnessed yesterday a confrontation that lasted for hours between protesters and riot police. Dozens of businesses and businesses have been subjected to vandalism and arson by "unknown parties", according to activists in the popular movement.
Analysts in Beirut linked this anonymous protest to the struggle of the various wings of the political system over multiple issues related to how to manage the crisis, in addition to the implications of the American "Caesar Law" against the Syrian regime on the Lebanese interior.
In conjunction with these protests, clashes erupted in Tripoli, where it recorded repeated operations and fleeing between the security forces and the protesters who stopped trucks loaded with food heading towards Syria, considering that it was intended to support the regime.
These analysts pointed out that the protests in the capital of North Lebanon were for goals related to the conflict between those loyal to and opposed to the government, in addition to proving the presence between the factions of the Future Movement fighting for the leadership of the current in the city and outside it.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, one of Tripoli’s former deputies - preferring not to reveal his name - says that part of what happened in the city is a struggle between the brothers Saad and Bahaa Al-Hariri over the leadership of the Future Movement, and this protest has deviated from its intention and turned into a confrontation with the army and security forces.
Protests and a "coup"
These protests - which took sectarian proportions in Beirut - called the Supreme Defense Council to hold a session at the Republican Palace, chaired by President Michel Aoun and attended by Prime Minister Hassan Diab and senior security leaders in the country.
Aoun said at the meeting that "the subversive acts that took place recently and some of them took on a sectarian and sectarian dimension, are no longer acceptable", and they portend serious repercussions, stressing the need to adopt what he called pre-emptive operations to arrest the planners and inciters of subversive acts.
For his part, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said - at the meeting itself - that what happened in the country is abnormal, considering that there is a decision somewhere aimed at tampering with civil peace, adding that what is happening "is not a protest against hunger, but a vandalism."
Diab said in a speech he addressed to the Lebanese last Saturday that what Lebanon witnessed was a coup attempt to topple his government.
He pointed the finger at his opponents, without naming them, in the forefront of which was former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his successor, Socialist Progressive Party leader Walid Jumblatt and Chairman of the Forces Party Samir Geagea.
Diab said in his speech to the Lebanese that all "secret and public meetings and agreements above and below the table, and orders for internal and joint operations, did not succeed in overthrowing the workshop to discover corruption."
"Programmed" demonstrations
In the face of these moves and the resultant targeting of commercial establishments in downtown Beirut and trucks for transporting foodstuffs to Syria - which later turned out to be affiliated with the World Food Program sent to the displaced Syrians inside their country - there were numerous readings in Lebanon about what happened.
These analyzes focused on what Beirut witnessed was a clear message to the governor of the central bank to pump dollars into the markets, which the Syrian regime might benefit indirectly before the start of implementing the American "Caesar Law" against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
And the law "Caesar to protect Syrian civilians" provides for sanctions against the Syrian regime, and everyone who supports it financially or in kind or technology.
Political analyst Saad Kiwan believes that the demonstrations and sabotage operations that Lebanon witnessed during the past few days have affected commercial institutions in the center of the capital, its actual goal is to exert pressure on the governor of the central bank and those who support him politically, to pump quantities of dollars into the market under the pretext of supporting the national currency.
He added that what is happening is "in fact the pressures used in the street to pump millions of dollars to be entered into Syria before the Caesar Law came into effect, and thus support the Syrian regime more than to support the lira and protect it from collapse."
He adds to Al Jazeera Net that Lebanon, for example, was paying annually two billion dollars instead of subsidizing fuel and flour, while today it pays more than 4 billion dollars, which "indicates the extent to which the Syrian regime benefits from smuggling operations from Lebanon through illegal crossings."
Kiwan believes that the participation of party supporters in the government in the recent demonstrations, and the chants against the governor of the Central Bank in conjunction with an unprecedented depreciation of the lira against the dollar, is "an expression of the actual concerns of Syria's allies in Lebanon, from the entry into force of Caesar's law and its negative reflection on them politically and financially." ".
Meaningful confrontation
For its part, the economic writer, Mahasin Mursal, says that what happened in Beirut and even in Tripoli during the past days is the actual pressure on the Bank of Lebanon to pump the green currency into the market, and this is what the Syrian regime will benefit from, adding to Al Jazeera Net that the dollars that will be pumped into the market will be its stop. Syria Final.
In turn, journalist David Rimal sees that Lebanon witnessed multiple protests as a confrontation between the forces of change and the ruling political class that triumphed and won a round to re-install the governor of the Banque du Liban in his position, after he pledged to pump dollars into the market.
He adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the political and religious system in the country has secured protection for the governor of the central bank after he made commitments that satisfy the ruling class.