Reasons and Trend of Recent Protests in Lebanon
Recent protests in Lebanon started due to increasing the taxes on messaging apps such as WhatsApp by government. This move by the government is like setting fire on the dry lodges of economic pressure on people, made them impatient and caused vast protests on the bad economic situation in recent years.
Few hours after gathering of people, some confrontations happened between people and security forces; forcing the government to put away the plan.
In the second day of the protests, i.e., on Thursday protesters blocked streets in Beirut and put tires on fire and demanded resignation of the government and engaged with security forces.
Lebanese government has difficulty for sufficient budget for next year and Parliament by passing bills on increasing the taxes of fuel, messaging apps, etc., tried to help the deficiency.
Increasing taxes, fires on western mountains of Lebanon and government linger in fixing the situation caused more people to protests. In the recent fire, 3 were killed and 8 injured. Lebanon has asked international help to extinguish the fire.
On Friday PM Saad Hariri accusing the parties collaborating with government, gave them 72 hours to find the solution out of current economic crisis.
Saad Hariri threatened other parties and asked them to be responsible. He threatened to disclose secrets and accused others that his reforming plans have not been successful yet.
On the other hand, Sayed Hasan Nasrollah in a speech yesterday, rejecting the solution of canceling the parliament or resignation of the government asked responsibility of politicians.
After the government’s promises and Hezbollah and President’s invitation for peace, there is a peace in Lebanon and protests are fading. Due to the agreement between Saad Hariri and Minister of Economy, the plans to increase the taxes are all canceled.
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