Beirut, Nov 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) Banks reopened in Lebanon on Friday for the first time since the start of anti-government protests more than two weeks ago.
It came after a speech by President Michel Aoun on Thursday, who promised to form a new government that regains people's confidence and solves the country's economic problems, reports Efe news.
Besides banks, shops and education centres have also reopened, while most roads were unblocked by Lebanese security forces and protesters themselves, who are now marking their 16th consecutive day on the streets to demand deep economic and political reforms, and a regime change.
Dozens of people queued up early in the morning at the offices of the main banking offices in Beirut, an employee of Audi bank told Efe.
A group of protesters broke into the headquarters of the Association of Banks, in the Gemayzel neighbourhood of downtown Beirut, but the security forces expelled them and arrested five people, according to the official Lebanese news agency NNA.
So far, only ATMs were in operation and all bank procedures had been paralyzed, as well as other commercial and bureaucratic activities.
On Thursday, the head of state promised the formation of a new executive after the resignation of the Prime Minister Saad Hariri and to carry out a "transition from a sectarian system to a civil state", which is not based on the distribution of power by religious belonging as established after the civil war.
Aoun said that the ministers would be chosen for "their abilities and experience and not for their political affiliations" to create a government capable of presenting solutions on pressing problems, especially of an economic nature.
Thousands of protesters returned to the streets in Beirut and other regions of the country after the President's announcement and closed some roads with burning tires.
The current wave of protests broke out in mid-October when the Lebanese government announced its intention to approve a rate of 20 cents a day for voice calls on social networks such as WhatsApp, Facebook or Viber in an attempt to increase revenue from indebted state.
Source: IANS
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