Police, protesters clash in Lebanon, dozens arrested
Clashes have erupted between police and demonstrators in Lebanon amid a new round of national dialogue talks, resulting in the arrest of over two dozen people.
The clashes broke out on Wednesday, as the protesters attempted to break through the barbed wire protecting the parliament building in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut, where politicians were holding the second round of national dialogue negotiations aimed at resolving differences on vital issues.
The Wednesday event was called by the “You Stink” campaign, which emerged earlier this year in protest at the government’s failure to collect garbage from the streets of Beirut.
The organizers of the gathering said dozens of baton-wielding riot police clashed with the protesters, making at least 25 arrests.
In response, some demonstrators shouted “Shame on you!” while others jeered the “dialogue of political trash.”
The first round of Lebanon’s national dialogue was held last week; it laid bare the sharp differences between rival parties over how to resolve a protracted political crisis that has plunged Lebanon into a presidential vacuum and paralyzed the executive and legislative branches of power.
Lebanon has been without a leader since May 2014, when former President Michel Sleiman left office at the end of his tenure.
The garbage crisis also began in July.
Last week, the Lebanese government approved a garbage management plan, under which two landfills in the northern district of Akkar and the eastern border area of Masnaa would take in waste over the next 18 months as a medium-term measure.
Campaigners, however, criticize the plan as too vague, saying it does not meet their demands.
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