As the economic condition continues to worsen in #Lebanon, angry residents of #Beirut attack Lebanese army vehicles. pic.twitter.com/Tkb4nARCkx
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) July 15, 2021
Paris, U.N. React to Hariri’s Resignation as Protests Engulf Lebanon
[AnNahar] French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday that PM-designate Saad Hariri
...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too....
's resignation was proof that "Lebanese officials are unable to find a way out of the crisis," accusing them of "cynical self-destruction."
A front man for the U.N. meanwhile described the development as regrettable, reiterating calls for a government capable of addressing the country's "numerous challenges" to be put together rapidly.
International donors remain adamant that a government must be established before they can open credit lines, but political squabbling among Lebanese factions has repeatedly stymied those efforts, amid soaring poverty rates.
Hariri's announcement -- nearly a year after a deadly explosion at Beirut port forced the last government to resign -- takes the political process back to square one. There is a clear risk of many more months of drift.
President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
will now have to call on parliament to pick a new premier-designate, who will be tasked with assembling another cabinet which in turn will have to be approved by the president and political factions.
Hariri's decision followed a meeting with Aoun over his draft cabinet lineup.
"There were amendments requested by the president, which I considered substantial," Hariri told news hounds after the meeting.
"It is clear that... we will not be able to agree," he added, noting that the president had expressed the same opinion.
- SPORADIC PROTESTS -
Aoun's office hit back, saying that Hariri "was not ready to discuss amendments of any kind... (leaving) the door to discussion... closed."
Hariri has previously repeatedly accused Aoun of hampering the process by insisting on a cabinet share that would effectively give his team a decision-making veto.
The president's team, for its part, claims that it is only seeking a balanced distribution of ministerial seats.
The premier-designate's exit leaves Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollahblew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate faci8lity exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that...rudderless amid a deepening economic crisis that the World Bank has branded as one of the planet's worst since the mid-19th century.
The Lebanese pound, officially pegged to the dollar at 1,500, plummeted to a new record low beyond 20,000 on the black market after Hariri's announcement, prompting renewed street protests and road closures in a country that is struggling to fund basic imports such as fuel and medicines.
A few dozen protesters clashed with soldiers who fired rubber bullets to try to clear roads near a major sports stadium in Beirut, an AFP correspondent said.
The Lebanese Red Thingy, which dispatched three ambulances to the area, said people were maimed, but did not specify how many.
Protests also engulfed other parts of the country as the highway linking Beirut to the South was blocked in several locations.
Hariri had been nominated prime minister designate in October 2020, following a devastating explosion at Beirut port in August caused by unsafely stored fertilizer that killed more than 200 people.
- SECTARIAN CLEAVAGE -
He is the second candidate to fail at forming a government in less than 12 months.
With cabinet berths and parliamentary seats distributed according to religious sects, Hariri's exit will further complicate negotiations, as he is widely seen as the pivotal representative of the country's Sunni Moslems.
For months, Hariri and Aoun have traded blame for delays in establishing a government.
The international community has pledged millions of dollars in humanitarian aid
since last year's port blast, but made the money conditional on installing a government capable of tackling corruption.Hariri, who has previously led three governments in Lebanon, replaced as premier designate Mustafa Adib, a relatively unknown diplomat.
Adib had been nominated in late August but threw in the towel nearly a month later, because of resistance from factions over his proposed line-up.
Hariri's decision came as Lebanon prepares to mark the first anniversary of the August 4 explosion -- its worst peace-time tragedy -- which many blame on negligence by politicians.
While the port disaster forced the last government, led by outgoing prime minister Hassan Diab, to resign, he and his cabinet have lingered on in a caretaker capacity.
Nabil Bou Monsef, a political commentator in An-Nahar newspaper, said that naming a new prime minister would now be even more difficult.
"We may not be able to form a government or find an alternative to Saad Hariri," he said. "President Michel Aoun will now consider himself victorious in getting rid of Saad Hariri. But in reality, (Aoun) has opened the gates of hell for the whole country and his rule."
The 51-year-old Hariri has served as prime minister twice, the first time from 2009-2011. His second time came in 2016, in an uneasy partnership with Aoun, an ally of
Hizbullah...
Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as
The Resistanceand purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
, which is backed by Iran. At the time, Hariri had backed Aoun for president, ending nearly two years for Lebanon without a head of state, while he stepped in as premier.
In 2017, in a reflection of a feud between Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
and its regional rival Iran, Hariri suddenly resigned in a televised address from Riyadh and accused Hizbullah of taking Lebanon hostage. The move was seen as forced on Hariri by the Saudis, and he was quickly restored to power, but it signaled the end of his traditional alliance with the Sunni regional powerhouse.
Then, in October 2019, Hariri resigned, bowing to nationwide protests demanding major reforms. A year later, parliament named him once again to the post, months after the government of Hassan Diab resigned in the wake of the massive Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut's port. More than 200 people died in the blast that defaced the city and injured thousands, compounding Lebanon's woes. An investigation continues into what caused it.