Diab Says Govt. Can't be Formed through Tripoli's 'Burning Tires'

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Wednesday suggested that there are “political messages” behind the unrest in Tripoli.

“The people’s scram is understood and heard and the Lebanese are facing huge challenges,” Diab said, noting that “the state is offering aid despite its difficult financial situation.”

“The army has started distributing the new batch of the LBP 400,000 assistance to around 250,000 families. It is true that this assistance does not meet their needs but it contributes to alleviating the burden,” Diab added.

“But there is a big difference between the honest expression of people’s pain and the acts of sabotage and attacks against state institutions and people’s properties,” the caretaker PM went on to say, in reference to the incidents in Tripoli.

He stressed that it is unacceptable to “ruin the city of Tripoli for the sake of addressing political messages from it.”

“It is unacceptable for Tripoli, or any Lebanese region, to remain a burning mailbox. It is unacceptable to block roads in the face of people as part of the approach of political defiance,” Diab added.

He also emphasized that “the government cannot be formed or blocked through burning tires, the blocking of roads and attacks on state institutions, the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese Army.”

Fresh clashes erupted in the afternoon in Tripoli in the wake of Diab’s remarks.

Overnight clashes in Tripoli between security forces and demonstrators angered by the coronavirus lockdown injured at least 45 people, the Lebanese Red Cross said on Wednesday.

Tripoli was already one of Lebanon's poorest areas even before the pandemic piled on new misery to a chronic economic crisis.

Many of its residents have been left without an income since Lebanon enforced a full lockdown earlier this month in a bid to stem a surge in Covid-19 cases and prevent its hospitals being overwhelmed.

Last week, authorities extended the lockdown by two weeks, angering day laborers and other vulnerable groups. 

A round-the-clock curfew is in force nationwide and grocery shopping is restricted to home deliveries, which are often unavailable in poorer areas.

Lebanon has recorded over 285,000 coronavirus cases and more than 2,470 deaths since the pandemic began.

The outbreak has compounded an economic crisis that has seen more than half of the population fall below the poverty line, with a quarter living in extreme poverty.