The crisis of Lebanese banks is expanding ... Hariri warns of ruin and demands to accelerate the formation of the government

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that the confrontations in front of the Lebanese Central Bank target Beirut and its role as the capital and economic center, while the Association of Banks in Lebanon criticized the great and irresponsible slowdown in forming the new government.

Al-Hariri added that he would not accept being a false witness on suspicious missions that could take Lebanon to ruin.

He said in tweets on Twitter: The attack on Hamra Street is unacceptable under any of the slogans, and it is an attack that I do not want to upload to the people's revolution and their anger on the banks, but it was a black stain on the forehead of any party or person justifying and covering it.

Al-Hariri pointed out that the matter requires the movement of the judiciary to pursue those who tamper with the safety of the capital, just as it requires the army to shoulder its responsibilities in deterring the perpetrators of law and manipulating civil peace.

Al-Hariri's statements come hours after protesters broke down the facades of a number of banks at night in the Hamra area, in the center of Beirut, against the backdrop of severe restrictions imposed on depositors who want to withdraw their money.

After stopping for weeks, the demonstrators returned to the streets of Beirut and a number of regions on Tuesday to protest against the stumbling of the formation of a new government and the intensification of the economic and financial crisis, in a new episode in a series of unprecedented protests that Lebanon has witnessed since last October 17.

Hamra Street - which includes the headquarters of the Central Bank of Lebanon and dozens of banks and commercial establishments - has turned into a scene of violent confrontations at night, interspersed with stones between the demonstrators and the security forces who used tear gas to disperse them, and arrested a number of them after being pursued in the alleys.

Clashes and wounded
The clashes left the demonstrators and security forces wounded, and a number of them were transferred to hospitals, according to what the Civil Defense announced in a statement, without specifying the number.

The demonstrators broke the banks' façades using the traffic lights poles that they uprooted from them, iron pipes and fire extinguishers. They also destroyed ATMs and wrote anti-bank slogans on the walls.

The employees of most of the banks attended to their normal working hours, inspecting the damages caused to their workplace, before they resumed receiving depositors.

The movement appeared natural in the streets and surrounding Beirut, while protesters cut main roads in the east, south and north of the country, and many schools closed their doors.

Demonstrators revenge the banks, which imposed in the past three months tight restrictions on withdrawals, especially from the dollar. Its branches witness almost daily problems between customers who want to get their money and bank employees who are unable to meet this.

The Lebanese Ministry of Interior said that 47 members of the security forces were injured, and 59 people were arrested in connection with the riots in front of the Central Bank of Lebanon yesterday.

Powers and crisis
In connection with this crisis, the representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Lebanon, Jan Kopec, said - in tweets on Twitter - that the Governor of the Bank of Lebanon is requesting exceptional powers to manage the economy, and that those responsible for the situation are standing idly by while the economy is collapsing, and this is unbelievable!

Cubic criticized Lebanese politicians who had failed to form a government, while angry protests escalated and the economy collapsed, saying they should blame themselves for this dangerous mess.

This comes while the Association of Banks in Lebanon criticized on Wednesday what it described as "the great and irresponsible slowdown" in forming a new government, after a night of bank sabotage.

The Association of Banks said in a statement that the banking sector "is doing what it can to preserve the remainder of our national economy," and that the delay in forming a new government "puts banks at the forefront as if they are responsible for the deterioration of the conditions that are taking place."

The current economic crisis - the worst since the end of the civil war (1975-1990) - is the result of years of slow growth, with the state's inability to undertake structural reforms, the decline in the volume of foreign investment, as well as the repercussions of the political divide that has been exacerbated by the conflict in Syria.

The public debt in Lebanon has risen to about ninety billion dollars, which is equivalent to more than 150% of the gross domestic product.