Lebanon's Caretaker PM Pleads for a New Govt as Protests Continue

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab speaks at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon March 6, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab speaks at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon March 6, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)
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Lebanon's Caretaker PM Pleads for a New Govt as Protests Continue

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab speaks at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon March 6, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab speaks at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon March 6, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab threatened on Saturday to stop performing his duties to pressure politicians to form a new government, citing an incident in which shoppers fought over milk to illustrate the parlous state of the economy.

Diab’s cabinet resigned on the back of the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion that devastated swathes of the capital. Prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri was nominated in October but has failed to form a new cabinet since due to political deadlock between him and President Michel Aoun.

An ongoing financial crisis, which erupted in 2019, has wiped out jobs, raised warnings of growing hunger and locked people out of their bank deposits. A new cabinet could implement reforms needed to trigger billions of dollars of international aid.

“If seclusion helps with cabinet formation then I am ready to resort to it, although it goes against my convictions for it disrupts the entire state and is detrimental to the Lebanese,” Diab said in a televised speech.

“Doesn’t the scramble for milk constitute a sufficient incentive to transcend formalities and roughen out the edges in order to form a government?” Diab said referring to the recent incident at a Beirut supermarket in which shoppers fought over powdered milk.

A video of the squabble went viral on social media, leaving many people shocked at the desperate state of the economy.

Groups of protesters have been burning tires to block roads across the country on a daily basis since the Lebanese currency tumbled to a new low on Tuesday, enraging a population long horrified by the country’s financial meltdown.

The collapse of the Lebanese pound, which fell to 10,000 to the dollar on Tuesday, was the last straw for many who have seen prices of consumer goods such as diapers and cereals nearly triple since the financial crisis erupted.

On Saturday demonstrators protested in front of the banking association, demanding access to their deposits, and then walked to the parliament building in downtown Beirut to express their frustration at the deteriorating economic conditions.

“Social conditions are aggravating, financial conditions are putting a severe strain on the country, political conditions are increasingly complex,” Diab added in his speech.

“The country is confronted with enormous challenges that a normal government cannot face without political consensus so how can a caretaker government face these challenges?”



Türkiye Resolves Residency Dispute of Exiled Brotherhood Judge Sharaby

Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)
Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)
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Türkiye Resolves Residency Dispute of Exiled Brotherhood Judge Sharaby

Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)
Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)

An exiled Egyptian judge affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood said he ended an open-ended hunger strike after Turkish authorities intervened to resolve his residency status, following a public plea to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Waleed Sharaby, who fled to Türkiye in 2016 after being sentenced in Egypt, announced on Facebook late Thursday that he was halting his protest, which began outside a police station where he had been staging a sit-in.

He said the hunger strike was in response to Turkish authorities preventing him from leaving the country and refusing to renew his residency for nearly two years.

Sharaby claimed Turkish security services had acted on pressure from Egypt’s intelligence services, prompting him to appeal directly to Erdogan. He did not provide evidence for the alleged interference.

Moreover, Sharaby said he ended a two-day hunger strike and sit-in protest in Türkiye after receiving a call from a senior Turkish official who pledged to resolve his legal and residency issues.

Sharaby wrote on Facebook that he returned home and resumed eating on Thursday after the official, whose identity he did not disclose, invited him to a meeting and assured him that part of the issue would be resolved soon. “We may succeed in fully resolving the matter following this initial step,” he said.

Sharaby, who fled Egypt in 2016 after court rulings against him, began his hunger strike on Wednesday outside a police station in protest over what he described as Turkish authorities’ refusal to renew his residency for nearly two years and a travel ban that prevented him from leaving the country.

According to sources, Turkish authorities briefly detained him on Wednesday while attempting to depart the country, citing alleged financial violations involving Turkish citizens. He was held for a day before being released, after which he launched his protest.

During his sit-in, Sharaby publicly appealed to Erdogan via Facebook, asking for a personal meeting or for the issue to be referred to the appropriate authorities.

He claimed he had been subjected to “severe harassment” and travel restrictions, including pressure on a business he owns in Türkiye and a ban on leaving the country to seek asylum, reportedly in a European state, where his wife and children relocated nearly two years ago.

Turkish authorities have not publicly commented on the case. Türkiye has hosted several exiled members of the Muslim Brotherhood following the group's ouster from power in Egypt in 2013, though Ankara has since moved to restore ties with Cairo.

Sources close to Sharaby said Turkish authorities have agreed to grant him humanitarian residency, allowing him to remain in the country permanently despite the expiry of his Egyptian passport.

The move aligns with similar measures taken for other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is designated a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government.