Twenty-three anti-government protesters were arrested and many roads leading to Beirut were shut on Friday as people took to the streets to vent their anger over a deep financial crisis that has triggered inflation and global credit downgrades in Lebanon.
The protests, which began on Thursday night and continued through the night, were the largest Lebanon has seen in nearly 20 years and have called into question the country’s ability to overcome the crisis, which has also seen the credit ratings of four banks in the Middle East plunged over the past few months.
Saturday saw demonstrations spread across Beirut with road closures, checkpoints and searches by Lebanese security forces. Protesters also blocked access to major roads leading to the city. Troops remained deployed on the outskirts of Beirut as army units increased security measures to prevent any potential escalation of unrest.
Protesters described the economy as a dead end and demanded that the government keep spending and take measures to increase taxes.
“If the government doesn’t do anything, we’ll take to the streets to take away our money,” said Jameel, 24, who participated in the protests in the north of the country. He refused to give his last name out of fear for his family back home.
With a population of only 4 million, Lebanon has a high unemployment rate, which stands around 12 percent, which is among the highest in the region, and is much higher than the rest of the Arab world.
The shortage of fuel and food has had a huge economic impact, particularly on poorer people in Lebanon. Some Lebanese complain that the government has failed to face up to its responsibility to foster a vibrant and growing economy, while it has spent on foreign aid with little to show for it.
The turmoil in Lebanon has been mirrored in Egypt, where the Islamic State and other militants have seized large swaths of territory and sparked national protests.
After a month of simmering, the protests in Lebanon grew on Thursday, with violent clashes between the demonstrators and police in the south of the country.
As the demonstrations continued into Friday, National News Agency officials reported that at least 23 people were arrested, but other sources said there were up to 40 arrests in the capital. As of noon, all roads were still blocked and there was no word about the number of casualties.
According to the Syrian state news agency, Syrian government forces “discovered thousands of demonstrators” on the streets of northern and eastern Lebanon. The agency said the troops opened fire in response to the protesters, killing a teen and wounding 11 others.
Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, on a trip to Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ally, said Lebanon faces a crisis in which the parties that form the parliament and government refuse to act.
“There are rulers who don’t take a political decision unless it’s forced on them,” Machnouk told The Associated Press. “There are workers, who don’t work but sit at home, who eat chicken instead of meat.”
The unrest follows the withdrawal of $1.5 billion of aid from Lebanon by Qatar and Saudi Arabia in July after it emerged that Lebanese soldiers arrested for storming a government building in Tripoli in June were planning to assassinate President Michel Suleiman. Suleiman had taken retaliatory measures against the two soldiers.
Political analysts say the local crisis is bound to have an impact on regional politics.
“The fact that the protests are on the Turkish border and on the border with Syria shows that the entire region is affected by this crisis in Lebanon,” Tawfiq Doueri, the head of the Lahd Medical Center and president of Lebanon’s Medical Association, told The Washington Post.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular have criticized the decision by the Hezbollah-led Lebanese government to open a diplomatic mission in Tehran following the death of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Many in the Gulf see Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy in the region, while Hezbollah and the government deny the group’s involvement in any border conflict with the Sunni kingdom.
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