Violence engulfs blast-hit Beirut
POLITICAL CHURN Protesters seize foreign ministry after trying to storm parliament; Lebanon PM says he will push for early elections
BEIRUT: Lebanese protesters stormed the foreign ministry in Beirut on Saturday as anger exploded over a deadly blast that made hundreds of thousands homeless and shocked the world.
Also on Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he would propose early elections to break the impasse that is plunging the country into political and economic crisis.
“We can’t exit the country’s structural crisis without holding early parliamentary elections,” Diab said in a televised address, adding that he would propose early polls to cabinet on Monday.
Thousands of demonstrators, some of them brandishing nooses, had descended on the city centre to vent their fury at politicians they blame for Tuesday’s explosion, which levelled Beirut port and killed 158 people.
Demonstrators marched through streets ravaged by the blast, gathering in the central Martyrs’ Square as their grief gave way to rage.
As security forces focused their attention on a tense demonstration a few hundred metres down the road, a group led by retired Lebanese army officers stormed the foreign ministry and declared it the “headquarters of the revolution”.
Elsewhere, police fired tear gas to disperse groups of young men hurling stones and seeking to push towards parliament. About 7,000 people gathered in Martyrs’ Square in the city centre.
The protesters chanted “Revolution! Revolution!” - a popular chant during the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. They flashed posters saying, “Leave, you are all killers.”
The government has promised to hold those responsible for the blast to account. But few Lebanese are convinced. Some set up nooses on wooden frames as a warning to Lebanese leaders.
To add to the chaos, Lebanon’s Kataeb Party, a Christian group that opposes the government backed by the Hezbollah, announced the resignation of its three lawmakers.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, will host a donor meet for Lebanon via video-link on Sunday. US President Donald Trump said that he will join.