Mikati asks if Thursday protestors were 'real depositors' as Security Council meets

The Central Security Council held Friday an emergency meeting at the Grand Serail, a day after angry protesters blocked roads across the country and smashed windows and set tires on fire outside banks in Beirut, as the value of the local currency hit a new low.

After the meeting, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked if the activists who burned tires in front of the banks are "real depositors," suggesting that they might have received instructions to do what they did.

Around 50 protesters had smashed the facades of four banks and burned car tires in the central Beirut neighborhood of Badaro.

The attacks came after calls by the "Depositors' Outcry Association", a group that supports depositors' attempts to withdraw their money.

Mikati added that today's security meeting has been preceded by a financial meeting as part of a series of meetings that will be held next week in order to take the required measures regarding the currency devaluation.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh had said during the financial meeting on Thursday that the Central Bank cannot control the exchange rate anymore on its own and needs the government to help it by taking the needed measures, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, who attended the security meeting on Friday, said that "chaos is not in anyone's interest."

"We affirm that we will separate security from politics," Mawlawi added, stressing that political and social problems should not affect security.