LEBANON: Economic protests return despite coronavirus lockdown

BEIRUT – Despite curfews and the imposition of house quarantine, protests have once again returned to the streets of Lebanon, where demonstrators blocked the country’s main roads and set fire to tires to stop traffic in a denunciation of current economic and living conditions.

Lebanon’s security forces intervened to restore traffic on the highways.

During skirmishes between demonstrators and security forces, six people were injured in the Al-Zalka area northeast of the capital Beirut and transported to hospitals.

In this tense atmosphere, the Lebanese Cabinet will hold a session on Tuesday to discuss the investigations into remittances abroad, take action against their owners, and take immediate and measures to combat corruption and recover looted funds.

The economic crisis in Lebanon over the past months has been exacerbated by a severe liquidity crisis and the decline in the exchange rate of Lebanese Pound against the U.S. Dollar to record lows.

Lebanon announced for the first time last month that it would stop paying off its foreign debt as the central bank’s reserves of U.S. dollars declines.