Lebanon today .. Protests continue and Hariri among the candidates to lead the next government

Protests continued in Lebanon on Monday amid calls for a strike, as sources said that the outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri is among the candidates to lead the government to be formed.

On Monday, protesters reportedly continued to block roads in many areas to pressure the political elite to resign and form a transitional technocrat government to handle anti-corruption files and improve services.

Protesters blocked roads in other areas, including the northern city of Tripoli and in the Khaldeh area south of Beirut, on the main highway to southern Lebanon, the official NNA news agency reported.

The agency said one person was wounded when army troops fired rubber bullets after a stampede with protesters in Beirut during an attempt to open a road.

In the same context, sources close to Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said that "Saad Hariri is a candidate like other names to form the next Lebanese government."

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned last week in the wake of popular protests.

Since October 17, demonstrators in Lebanon have been protesting, demanding the fall of the ruling class, an end to sectarian quotas and accountability for corrupt people.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied on Sunday in Beirut and several Lebanese cities at the invitation of the demonstration in what is called "One Day of Unity", renewing their demand for the departure of the entire political class. They also called for a speedy formation of a national salvation government, paving the way for early parliamentary elections.

Large numbers of Lebanese gathered in the Martyrs Square and Riad El Solh in central Beirut, holding Lebanese flags and holding slogans denouncing the ruling class and calling for accountability from their corrupt names.

Urgent demands
The protesters demanded a date for binding parliamentary consultations to name a new prime minister, and the procedures for forming a government of specialists focused on resolving outstanding problems and a new election law.

In return, thousands of Lebanese demonstrated outside the Baabda presidential palace in support of President Michel Aoun.

On the sidelines of the demonstration, the Lebanese president said that the people have lost their trust in their country, stressing the need to work to restore this confidence.

Aoun said in a speech addressed to thousands of supporters that there is a road map developed to address three files, namely corruption, the economy and the civil state.

He pointed out that the achievement of these points is not easy, and called for unity, and vowed to fight corruption and improve the economy and build a civil state, and warned of the situation turned into an arena against the arena and a demonstration against another, saying that corruption is rooted for decades.