Amid Protests in Lebanon, Financial Collapse and Security Concerns Loom

W460

Amid a political impasse after more than 40 days of protests, sectarian and political rivalries are awakening in Lebanon, with scuffles breaking out daily, including in areas that were deadly front lines during the country's 1975-90 conflict.

The tiny Mediterranean country is also reeling under the worst financial crisis in decades with unprecedented capital controls, and as tempers flare, there are real concerns Lebanon could be sliding toward a prolonged period of instability.

"We are standing before two dangers that are racing with each other, the danger of financial collapse and the danger of security collapse. It is an unprecedented situation," said Nabil Bou Monsef, deputy editor-in-chief of the An-Nahar newspaper.

Overnight confrontations Tuesday in several Lebanese regions, mostly fistfights and stone throwing, injured dozens of people and 16 people were detained for their involvement, the Lebanese Red Cross and the army said Wednesday.

President Michel Aoun has yet to hold consultations with parliamentary blocs on choosing a new prime minister after the government resigned a month ago.

Outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who was Aoun's and Hizbullah's favorite to lead a new Cabinet, withdrew his candidacy for the premiership, saying he hoped to clear the way for a solution to the political impasse after over 40 days of protests. Protesters have resorted to road closures and other tactics to pressure politicians into responding to their demands for a new government.

The most recent violence first began Sunday night after supporters of Hizbullah and the AMAL Movement attacked protesters on Beirut's Ring highway. During the civil war, that thoroughfare had connected predominantly Muslim neighborhoods in the city's west with Christian areas in the east.

A standoff meanwhile took place Tuesday night between people in the Shiite suburb of Shiyyah and the adjacent majority Christian area of Ain el-Rummaneh, where stones were hurled between supporters of Hizbullah and residents and rival groups supporting the Lebanese Forces. A shooting in Ain el-Rummaneh in April 1975 triggered the 15-year civil war that killed nearly 150,000 people.

Also on Tuesday night, unknown rioters clashed with the army in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest, injuring 24 people. Seven were hospitalized.

In the mountain town of Bikfaya, 10 people were injured, including five who were hospitalized, after scuffles and stone throwing between Aoun's supporters and supporters of the Kataeb Party, according to the Red Cross. The violence broke out after a convoy of dozens of vehicles carrying Aoun supporters drove into the town, which has been historically a Kataeb stronghold.

On Thursday, about 300 women marched on the former front line between Ain el-Rummaneh and Shiyyah after meeting each other in the middle and exchanging white roses. Some held banners that read: "All one nation" and "All one pain."

"No to civil war!" they shouted.

But in the absence of a government and any political solution, analysts say more turmoil and instability is inevitable.

"I expect more chaos. As long as the country is without political cover, it is subjected to dangers. There is no government and there is complete failure in the constitutional process of forming a government," Bou Monsef said.

The growing security concerns also reflect a fast deteriorating financial crisis in a country that is among the most indebted in the world. Amid dollar shortages, Lebanese banks have imposed unprecedented financial controls to preserve liquidity, further paralyzing the country and forcing up prices amid fears of financial collapse.

Businesses and households have been thrown into disarray. Residents say they don't know how they will come up with dollar payments needed to pay for tuition, health insurance and housing loans. Companies are struggling to transfer salaries to staff, others have cut salaries or are simply laying off employees.

Some experts have suggested that a so-called haircut, in which the state takes a cut of depositors' money to cover its debts, is inevitable to deal with the crisis. Central Bank Gov. Riad Salameh has denied this was an option.

On Wednesday, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Central Bank in Beirut's commercial Hamra district, calling for fiscal measures that will not affect small depositors and the poor. Next to them, barbers and hairdressers were giving men and women free haircuts amid concerns about depositors' savings.

"They are imposing on us certain restrictions where people are not able to purchase medicine, and are unable to go to the hospital, while the big businessmen are able to transfer their money," said Rebecca Saadeh, a protester, as a hair dresser cut her hair.

"People are desperate to get dollars to pay their rent or to buy food, which is spiking fabulously and then they accused us of protesting," she said.

The Lebanese Army said in a statement that 16 people involved in the violence were detained, adding that 33 troops were injured in Tripoli after soldiers were hit with stones and molotov cocktails. It added that 10 other soldiers were injured as they separated crowds in Shiuyah and Ain el-Rummaneh, while eight were injured in Bikfaya.

Clashes between protesters and supporters of Hizbullah and AMAL are putting Lebanon's military and security forces in a delicate position, threatening to crack open the country's dangerous fault lines amid a political deadlock.

Hariri had resigned Oct. 29 in response to the mass protests ignited by new taxes and the severe financial crisis. His resignation met a key demand of the protesters but plunged the country into uncertainty, with no clear path to resolving its economic and political problems.

Hariri had insisted on heading a government of technocrats, while his opponents, including Hizbullah, want a Cabinet made up of both experts and politicians.

Bou Monsef said Hizbullah believes that a Cabinet comprised of technocrats that excludes the group would be a gift for America, which wants to keep it out of government.

"Some are betting, especially the parties of the state, that the more the uprising is weakened the conditions that Hariri has put will weaken as well," said Mustafa Alloush, an official with Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement.

Comments 1
Thumb thepatriot 28 November 2019, 10:49

Man...one has to concentrate really hard to understand your gibberish tric... Christians will disappear from the Middle East. Yes. True. We know that. Demographics. And then what?