Roads Blocked after Journalist Zahran Insults Hariri
Roads in Beirut and elsewhere were blocked on Thursday in protest at remarks by the journalist Salem Zahran against Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.
In Beirut's Corniche al-Mazraa area, protesters blocked a vital highway with burning tires and garbage bins to condemn the “insult” against the prime minister.
Roads were also blocked in the al-Saadiyat and Aramoun areas on the coastal highway that links Beirut to the South.
Zahran, who is close to Hizbullah and Damascus, had on Wednesday night said that Hariri would “go to Syria with his leg over his neck” should Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tells him to do so.
Zahran voiced his remarks during a live talk show on MTV.
Hariri had on Tuesday announced that the new government “will not be formed” should the pro-Damascus camp “insist on restoring Lebanese-Syrian ties.”
“If others insist on restoring Lebanese-Syrian ties from the gateway of the reopened Nassib border crossing, then the government will not be formed,” Hariri said in a chat with reporters, referring to a key border crossing on the Syrian-Jordanian border that has been recently recaptured by Damascus.
“I do not agree to a restoration of Lebanese-Syrian ties and this is nonnegotiable,” Hariri added.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah commented on Hariri's remarks on the same day and advised him not to commit himself to stances that he “might be obliged to reverse in light of the regional developments.”
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