Lebanese army command calls on protesters to open roads
Lebanese soldiers and security
officials urged protesters to open blocked roads on Wednesday so life could
return to normal, after 13 days demonstrations paralyzed the country and forced
the prime minister to resign.
Troops cleared one major route north
of Beirut after briefly scuffling with demonstrators in the morning. A group of
soldiers tried to pick up a vehicle blocking the highway before it drove off,
al-Jadeed television footage showed.
At the Ring Bridge in the centre of
the capital, a security officer tried to persuade crowds to clear the way to
nearby hospitals. “I am staying here,” one woman told Reuters as she spread
blankets across the road.
Saad al-Hariri resigned as Lebanon’s
prime minister on Tuesday, toppling his coalition government. He said he had
hit a “dead end” in trying to resolve the crisis unleashed by the huge protests
against the ruling elite.
In a statement, the army command
said people had a right to protest, but that applied “in public squares only.”
The main protest camp in a square in
the centre of the capital was quiet but was closed to traffic by security
forces.
Hariri made his resignation speech
after a crowd loyal to the Shia Muslim Hezbollah and Amal movements attacked
and destroyed a camp in central Beirut.
It was the most serious strife on
the streets of Beirut since 2008, when Hezbollah fighters seized control of the
capital in a brief eruption of armed conflict with Lebanese adversaries loyal
to Hariri and his allies at the time.
The departure of Hariri, who has
been traditionally backed by the West and Sunni Gulf Arab allies, pushes
Lebanon into unpredictable political territory.
The protests have compounded
Lebanon’s already serious economic woes and banks kept their doors shut on
Wednesday.
