• Lebanon, clashes in front of Parliament
  • New clashes in Lebanon, hundreds of demonstrators in Beirut
  • Lebanon, protests explode: clashes in central Beirut, nearly 400 wounded

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January 22, 2020 Riot police have fired tear gas at demonstrators in front of the Lebanese Parliament protesting against the country's new government. According to the Lebanese official agency NNA, the police used tear gas after demonstrators tried to remove the barbed wire from Parliament's main entrance after the new Lebanese government led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab was born.

Previously they had tried to drive them away with water cannons, to which the demonstrators responded by throwing stones. According to a correspondent of the MTV broadcaster, a person was injured by stones while some protesters lost consciousness due to the gas

According to witnesses quoted by the news agency Dpa, the demonstrators threw stones at the riot forces that responded with water cannons to disperse the crowd. "Hassan Diab go home. We don't want you and your government," the protesters said, expressing their disapproval of the executive. Some tried to climb over the barbed wire with which the road leading to Parliament is closed. Others threw garbage bags at the policemen deployed in the area.

Reassure the future
Meanwhile, there was the first meeting of the new Lebanese government, one day after its formation after three months of political vacuum. Among the main challenges of the government is the serious economic and financial crisis, which worsened after the popular protests began in mid-October. Premier Saad Hariri had resigned two weeks later.

The new Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his ministers met for the first time at the presidential palace in Beirut, in the presence of President Michel Aoun. "The government was born in very difficult economic circumstances, which require further efforts to regain the confidence of the Lebanese and the international community," said Aoun during the first meeting of the new government at the presidential palace in Baabda, on the hills overlooking Beirut.

"We must reassure the Lebanese about their future," added the president. "We have already developed an economic plan and financial reforms that must be implemented or modified, if necessary, by the new government," said the head of state in the statements reported by the Lebanese agency NNA.