Anti-riot police fired tear gas at protesters in central Beirut on Tuesday. According to a TASS correspondent, groups of aggressive demonstrators tried to break through the police cordon to the parliamentary palace on the Place de l'Etoile During the clashes that broke out, there are injured people on both sides, who were taken away by cars of the Lebanese Red Cross society.
Army special forces were sent to help the guards, who regained control of the city center, driving out the demonstrators.
The Lebanese are demanding change
Earlier, protesters gathered in Place des Martyrs to demand early parliamentary elections and the democratization of Lebanon's existing system of religious governance. The action was peaceful and was timed to mark the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Great Lebanon under the French mandate on September 1. This event preceded the creation of the Lebanese Republic in 1926, and the country gained independence in 1943.
"A century has passed, but Lebanon has not become a full-fledged civil state," Mohammed Qasem, the leader of the Teachers' Union, told TASS. "We got this confessional regime from the French, thanks to which corruption thrives, and now French President Emmanuel Macron, arriving in Beirut, is trying to correct the situation and get the existing government to implement reforms." According to Qasem, the Lebanese will continue the protest movement they started on October 17 last year "until they achieve fundamental changes and realize their just aspirations."
Participants of the rally also expressed disagreement with the appointment of Prime Minister Mustafa Adib, who was instructed by President Michel Aoun on Monday to form a new government. "Mustafa Adib belongs to the ruling political class, this is not the figure that Lebanon needs now, we want an independent government," said an activist named Rana.
Crackdown on demonstrations in Ras al Nabaa
Police clashed with demonstrators on Tuesday also in Ras al Nabaa neighborhood, near the French Ambassador's residence, where Macron arrived for a meeting with representatives of the Lebanese public. The guards used batons and pushed the crowd of activists from the roadway.
Participants in this action demanded the release of a Lebanese man, Georges Abdallah, who was arrested in Paris in 1984 for belonging to a radical group. In 2013, he was pardoned and should have been released, but the French Interior Ministry refused to sanction the court's decision.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Bilal Hussein / AP / TASS main