BEIRUT: Angry protesters threw rocks and used metal frames to climb over steel walls surrounding Lebanon’s Parliament complex in central Beirut as security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
A smaller group marched towards Parliament after hundreds of others gathered in Martyrs’ Square on Tuesday to demand justice for victims of Beirut Port blast and commemorate the centennial anniversary of the creation of Greater Lebanon.
The protests coincided with the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Beirut for the second time since the enormous explosion, which at least 190 people, injured thousands and left 300,000 others homeless.
The two-day visit came after Lebanese leaders named the country’s former ambassador to Berlin Mustapha Adib as the new prime minister-designate, tasking him with the formation of a new government in the wake of the blast.
Anti-government slogans
Protesters, coming from various parts of the country and representing many civil society groups and political movements, chanted anti-government slogans and demanded the government step down. “We want them gone, all of them gone,” said a young protester as he threw rocks at steel walls.
Firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets, security forces pushed back the protesters away from Parliament into Martyrs’ Square. Sporadic clashes erupted between both sides.
Many protesters expressed their rejection for Adib as the country’s new Prime Minister and Macron’s visit, saying it was a reflection of foreign involvement in the country’s internal affairs.
A day before his formal appointment, four senior Sunni politicians and former prime ministers – Saad Hariri, Fouad Seniora, Najib Mikati, and Tammam Salam – endorsed Adib for the role, while rumours circulated in local media that Macron had also shown support for Adib.