Today, calm prevails in the central Beirut area after confrontations that left hundreds of people injured, while Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri called for an early formation of the government.
Tranquility has returned to the Beirut downtown area after clashes between thousands of protesters and security forces, which have been described as the most violent since the start of the popular movement calling for political and economic reforms last October 17.
The security forces have reinforced their deployment in the center of the capital in an attempt to prevent the renewal of clashes, punctuated by riots targeting banks and other institutions.
On social media, activists in the movement called for a demonstration again today to demand a government of independents.
The confrontations that took place on Saturday evening resulted in the injury of 377 people, and the transfer of at least eighty of them to hospitals, and the security forces announced that a number of their members were wounded.
The protests took a violent turn in the past hours, in light of a worsening economic and financial crisis, and what looked like a political vacuum.
Commenting on the recent events, Hariri said that the confrontations, fires and acts of sabotage in central Beirut are a crazy, suspicious and rejected spectacle that threatens civil peace and warns of the most serious consequences.
Al-Hariri called, in a tweet on Twitter, the military and security forces to protect the capital, and to play its part in curbing the infidels and the infiltrators.
| Hariri described what happened in Beirut as the crazy scene (Anatolia) |
The new government
Al-Hariri also called on politicians to urgently form a new government and find solutions to the economic crisis.
"There is a way to calm the popular storm. Stop wasting time, form a government and open the door for political and economic solutions," he wrote on Twitter.
The Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab was supposed to announce on Friday a government of 18 ministers, but its announcement was postponed.
Earlier, President of the Republic Michel Aoun said that he asked the defense and interior ministers and the relevant security leaders to maintain the security of peaceful protesters, prevent riots, secure public and private property, and restore security in central Beirut.