Spotlight
President Michel Aoun on Monday said in talks with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis that the first task for the upcoming government is to put anti-corruption measures in practice.

The Parliament speakership announced on Monday the postponement of a legislative session set to elect two secretaries and three commissioners, the National News Agency reported.

Two Journalists in Hizbullah-led al-Akhbar newspaper submitted their resignation recently rejecting the paper’s position about the nationwide demonstrations that gripped Lebanon since October 17 demanding a complete overhaul of a political system deemed inefficient and corrupt.

MP Bilal Abdullah, of the Progressive Socialist Party parliamentary bloc, called upon caretaker PM Saad Hariri to form a government that meets the people’s aspirations and leave his rivals to bear the consequences should they fail to listen to the popular street demands.
The MP said that political figures are exploiting their popular gatherings to impose conditions and enhance their power shares.

Lebanese demonstrators blocked key roads around the country on Monday after a weekend of mass rallies confirmed that political promises had failed to extinguish the unprecedented protest movement.

Lebanon’s anti-corruption protesters were on Sunday flocking to Beirut's Riad al-Solh and Martyrs squares to take part in a central demo dubbed "Sunday of Unity" and "Sunday of Pressure".
As protesters from across Lebanon joined demonstrators in downtown Beirut, the anti-corruption rallies continued in the northern city of Tripoli, the southern city of Tyre, the southern city of Sidon and the Mount Lebanon city of Aley.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Sunday lamented what he described as “empty populist stances,” shortly after President Michel Aoun and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil addressed a loyalist demo in Baabda.
“We have returned to square one with empty populist stances that date back to 30 years ago.

Free Patriotic Movement chief and caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Sunday noted that the people have “turned the tables,” as he slammed political rivals as “corrupts” and “thugs.”
“We had warned our partners that we would reach this stage and the people (who took part in the unprecedented popular revolt) acted before us and turned the tables and we are here to back them,” Bassil said at an FPM rally near the presidential palace in Baabda, reminding of his recent warning that the FPM would soon “turn the tables” in the country.

President Michel Aoun on Sunday said that “squares are plenty” in Lebanon and that “no one should think that there is a square against another.”
He was addressing via video link thousands of Free Patriotic Movement supporters who rallied near the presidential palace to voice support for his stances on the third anniversary of his election as president of the republic.

Supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement on Sunday flocked to the presidential palace road in Baabda from areas across Lebanon to show support for President Michel Aoun on the third anniversary of his election, and in the face of unprecedented protests against the entire political class.
“We tell all those who took to the squares that their demands are our demands and nothing separates us other than disinformation and those trying to exploit them,” Nicolas Sehnaoui -- an ex-telecom minister and a former FPM deputy chief -- told reporters at the rally.
