The streets of downtown Beirut, between the space of the Riad Salha and the Place de martir dotted with piles of stones. Cars trying to drive around the rubble that you can touch the bottom of the car. Everywhere there is a steady smell of burning and tear gas. The hotel "Le-gray" set on fire by demonstrators burns down the truck. A group of police officers leads one of the captured activists, throwing stones at law enforcement officers.
h2>Resignation of deputies
Clashes in the city centre between police forces and demonstrators began four days after the explosion August 4 at the seaport, which has led to tragedy for the middle East countries.
The opposition party, "Kataib" tried to use the discontent of the inhabitants of the slow progress in the investigation into the incident and announced a "day of rage". A new campaign against the government headed by the leader of the opposition party "Kataib" Sami Gemayel, who announced on Saturday the resignation of three legislators from the chamber of deputies.
The attack on the police cordons, the protesters were well prepared and followed from several sides. The main blow was struck in the courtyard between the hotel "Le-gray" and the building of the newspaper An-Nahar, there followed the crowd of demonstrators who moved from the headquarters of the party "Kataib" in the Saifi quarter.
The collision was fierce, at the end of the day, as reported by the civil defence, were injured 490 people, including 70 police officers. Five activists were detained.
Street view
While the crowd of protesters tried to break through the concrete barriers, leading to the parliamentary Palace at the Place Etoile, the other part of the demonstrators, "do justice" near the mosque Mohammed al-Amin. Activists set up the scaffold and have made symbolic execution using made of cardboard figures representing the leaders of the ruling parliamentary coalition.
A new twist in the events was the capture on Saturday of several government departments. The activists hung a red flag from the balconies of the mansion Palais Bustros where is the Lebanese foreign Ministry. One of them was written: "Beirut – the capital of the revolution" and another "Beirut – city without weapons". The second slogan of the activists was converted to the Shiite party "Hezbollah," the opposition is seeking the disarmament of its fighters in neighboring Syria on the side of the government army.
The Ministry of energy the rioters defiantly smashed portraits of the President Michel Aoun and announced their demands for the resignation of the head of state and Parliament speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
After midnight, the army came to the rescue of the police force, restore��La control Beirut’s centre and freed the captured buildings of the four ministries.
the Prime Minister made concessions
The shock of the day was the statement of Prime Minister about his willingness to consider early elections, which is one of the main demands of the opposition.
"the Situation requires the adoption of exceptional decisions, and the only way out of the crisis is early elections," said Diab. He promised at the upcoming Monday meeting of the Cabinet to put forward such an initiative.
The Prime Minister took the political leaders of the country two months to "to prepare a national decision on the NSA and to initiate structural reforms," making it clear that otherwise, may leave his post.
The leader of the centrist Progressive socialist party Walid Jumblatt, meanwhile, said about the necessity of creating in Lebanon a neutral government that would be engaged in "preparations for the elections based on the new non-confessional electoral law".
Street riots in Beirut happened the day before scheduled for Sunday an international conference to raise funds for Lebanon, which has offered to host the President of France Emmanuel macron, visited 6 Aug Beirut. In his speech at the meeting with the residents of the destroyed Christian quarters macron said that he had invited the leaders of Lebanon "to engage in true dialogue and to enter into a new political deal".
