Report: Foreign Agendas Dragging Lebanon to 'Major Crisis'

After fierce clashes that erupted on Saturday in Beirut leaving many wounded, reports said that some “external parties are manipulating sides inside Lebanon in order to trigger a major crisis,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

“There is a serious feeling at all levels that some external parties are trying, through internal parties that have become known to all by name, to take Lebanon to a major crisis,” the daily quoted prominent political sources as saying.

“Saturday’s incidents were a big shock to all political parties who must join efforts to protect the country. What happened has dangerously stirred strife and sedition, putting the fate of the nation and Lebanese at stake,” added the sources.

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“The gravity of the situation threw the ball in the ruling authority’s court which must take, through the government it supports, immediate and qualitative steps to enforce the economy, monetary and security situation,” they added.

Riots and sectarian tensions erupted in central Beirut and other areas Saturday overnight, leaving dozens of people injured, including 25 soldiers, as the Lebanese military warned that the clashes had endangered national unity.

The Lebanese Red Cross said 48 demonstrators were wounded, 11 of whom were hospitalized.

Shooting broke out in several areas around Lebanon after videos circulated on social media showing some supporters of Hizbullah and AMAL chanting sectarian insults.

President Michel Aoun on Sunday condemned “any insult against the religious symbols of any component of the Lebanese family and the subsequent acts of violence and reactions that occurred overnight in several Lebanese regions.”

Saturday’s protests were the largest since the government last month began gradually easing a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

Nationwide protests against Lebanon's political leaders had erupted on Oct. 17 amid an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, but were eventually put on hold due to the pandemic.