by arabnews.com —BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president Thursday said the country’s next cabinet should include ministers picked on skills, not political affiliation, seemingly endorsing a demand by a two-week-old protest movement for a technocratic government. Michel Aoun’s speech came as Lebanese protesters tried to block reopened roads and prevent their unprecedented non-sectarian push for radical reform from petering out. It followed the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government on Tuesday which had been met with cheers from crowds seeking the removal of a political class seen as corrupt, incompetent and sectarian. “Ministers should be selected based on their qualifications and experience, not their political loyalties,” Aoun said in a televised speech on the third anniversary of his presidency, pledging also to combat corruption and enact serious reforms. But his speech was met with disdain by demonstrators in central Beirut who, in response to his words, chanted the popular refrain of the 2011 Arab uprisings: ‘The people demand the fall of the regime.’ Nihmat Badreddine, an activist, said the president’s promises were “good in theory.”

“But there is no mechanism for implementation… and there is no deadline” she said, expressing fears of a stalled process. Sparked on Oct.17 by a proposed tax on free calls made through messaging apps such as WhatsApp, the protests have morphed into a cross-sectarian street mobilization against an entire political class that has remained largely unchanged since the end of the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. Some schools have reopened this week and banks were due to reopen on Friday, as the protests piled more economic pressure on a country that has been sliding toward debt default in recent months. Key members of the outgoing government, including the Shiite Hezbollah movement and the Christian president’s Free Patriotic Movement have warned repeatedly against the chaos a government resignation could cause. “Lebanon is at a dangerous cross roads, especially with regards to the economy,” Aoun said on Thursday. “So there is a dire need for a harmonious government that can be efficient without getting tangled in political disputes.”

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Lebanon may face a government crisis amid a wave of large-scale protests, and the events unfolding in the country may largely depend on the main players in the Middle East, which would prefer the status quo to avoid insecurity in the region, experts said on Thursday. The rallies in Lebanon have been underway for nearly two weeks. They were sparked by the authorities’ plan to introduce a tax on online calls made via WhatsApp messenger. The measure was subsequently scrapped. Still, the protests continued amid an acute economic crisis and low living standards, which President Michel Aoun said were a result of an economic blockade against Lebanon. Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation late on Tuesday, which prompted a stop in the mass protests that rocked Lebanon. The demonstrators unblocked roads and cleared off barricades in Beirut. The majority of schools announced the resumption of classes beginning on Thursday. Banks, in their turn, are ready to resume operations on Friday. On Wednesday, Aoun asked Hariri to stay on as interim prime minister to allow a new government to form after his cabinet stepped down. Later on Wednesday, the protesters reportedly returned to the streets, calling on the authorities to meet all their demands. The government tightened security measures in the areas where the protesters were gathering.

Economy Deteriorating

“The population of the country has reached a degree of discontent with which they can’t see worse than what they have been going through”, Gilbert Achcar, a professor at SOAS University of London, said. The Lebanese economy had begun to shrink long before the protests started, and the people have been seeing the whole situation deteriorating further and further, with rumors about the possible collapse of the economy and of the Lebanese currency emerging, he said. “[The Lebanese economy] has been deteriorating, and I cannot see it reverted now, unless you have a foreign financial intervention. But there have been so many millions of dollars injected in the economy, and actually with the corruption a lot of this money goes into pockets of a few instead of really benefiting the country,” Achcar added. The overall situation is pretty bad in Lebanon economically and politically, which is a problem for both the country’s leadership and the people, Daniel Meier, associate researcher at University Grenoble Alpes, said. “There are not so many options on the table now”, he said.

Geopolitics Matter

by arabnews.com TAREK ALI AHMAD — BEIRUT: Shallow. Superficial. Politically motivated. These are some of the epithets being used by Lebanese men and women to describe the portrayal by the foreign media of the ongoing protests against the country’s political elite. From Sidon in the south to Hermel in the north, Lebanon is witnessing an unprecedented cross-community uprising as public frustration with the country’s tottering economy, administrative paralysis, crumbling infrastructure and chronic corruption boils over. From the very start, many Lebanese say, the protests have been mischaracterized by Twittering “armchair pundits” and sections of the foreign media as a “Whatsapp Revolution” because of the telcommunications minister’s abortive attempt to introduce a daily $0.20 fee for users of Whatsapp and other internet-calling apps. Some Twitter users suggested the Lebanese “are going bonkers in the streets” because of the “Whatsapp tax.” It was not just comments on social media that many Lebanese found deeply objectionable. Time magazine had posted a photo on Instagram of burning tires with a caption that said: “Tension had simmered for months but on Thursday, protesters learned about the government’s plan to tax Whatsapp calls. As the streets swelled, the Associated Press adds, that plan was withdrawn.”

The Instagram post spurred many Lebanese abroad into reporting it for playing into media stereotype of the historic protests. But the attitude of some media outlets closer to home was seen as no less frivolous. The New York Times carried an opinion piece with the sub-headline “The Middle East could use a decent country. One million Lebanese protestors are demanding one. Hezbollah has other ideas”. The reference to “decent country” got heavy flak from Lebanese and Arabs on social media, prompting the newspaper to modify the sub-headline. A Saudi daily carried a report on the protests decorated with images of what it described as Lebanon’s “attractive and revolutionary” women, with the headline: “Lebanese babes: All the beautiful women are revolutionary.”

BEIRUT (Reuters)- Saad al-Hariri resigned as Lebanon’s prime minister on Tuesday, declaring he had hit a “dead end” in trying to resolve a crisis unleashed by huge protests against the ruling elite and plunging the country deeper into turmoil. Hariri addressed the nation after a mob loyal to the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and Amal movements […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon needs a political solution to the country’s crisis in days to regain confidence and avert a future economic collapse, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh told Reuters on Monday. He said a CNN headline did not reflect what he said in an interview with the broadcaster. “I am not saying that we […]

dw.com – German authorities are looking for a former embassy worker who allegedly sold visa documents to members of a Lebanese clan. The clan then used the documents to smuggle Syrian refugees into Germany, according to a report. A Lebanese man who used to work at the German embassy in Beirut is wanted by authorities over […]

(CNN) By Alaa Elassar, Protesters across Lebanon joined hands on Sunday to form a human chain that connected the country’s north and south, a symbolic display of national unity during a period of political turmoil. Nearly 170,000 people joined the chain, which ran from Akkar to Sidon, said Dr. Sally Hammoud, an event organizer. “It […]

yahoo.com — Hashem Osseiran and Anwar Amro — Beirut (AFP) – Demonstrators across Lebanon blocked roads and took to the streets Saturday for a 10th consecutive day, defying what they said were attempts by Hezbollah to defuse their movement and despite tensions with the army. The protesters — who have thronged Lebanese towns and cities since October […]

by aljazeera.com — Mersiha Gadzo – Beirut, Lebanon – Demonstrators in the Lebanese capital say their demands are “clear” and they will keep protesting until the government falls, disregarding a speech by Hezbollah’s leader who warned that the protest movement risked pushing Lebanon into “chaos” and “God forbid” civil war. In a televised address on […]

by naharnet — Scuffles renewed Thursday at Beirut’s Riad al-Solh Square between anti-government protesters and young men accusing them of “insulting” Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The scuffles had first erupted Wednesday evening but took a more violent turn on Thursday with the increase in the numbers of both the protesters and the “Nasrallah defenders.” […]