Hariri Slams 'Baseless Rumors' on Alleged Qatari Role in Protests

W300

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri stressed Wednesday that “rumors implicating the name of the State of Qatar in the current Lebanese events are definitely baseless.”

“Qatar is a brotherly state that cares about Lebanon's stability and it did not hesitate to help the country under all circumstances,” Hariri tweeted.

Hailing the “fraternal ties” with Qatar and its political leadership, the ex-PM expressed “gratitude for everything it has offered to Lebanon and Lebanese.”

On Monday, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, a member of Hariri's Mustaqbal movement, alleged that “a small Arab state is playing an active role in financing and instigating the protests.”

“Its name will be revealed when the investigations end,” he told Al-Arabiya television.

And on Wednesday, the pro-Hizbullah al-Akhbar newspaper hinted that Qatar is involved in the popular protests, noting that LBCI television chairman Pierre al-Daher and al-Jadeed TV deputy chairperson Karma Khayyat had visited Doha in the past week.

Earlier, some protest organizers and politicians had accused “thugs sent by political parties” of infiltrating peaceful demos to spark riots and clashes with security forces.

The protests started over a rubbish collection crisis but have become a movement targeting the country's stagnant and corrupt political class.

The demands of the protest movement, which is spearheaded by the “You Stink” campaign, have expanded beyond a solution to the waste crisis to calls for the environment minister's resignation, new parliamentary elections and accountability for violence against protesters.

On Tuesday, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun voiced concern that the protests could descend into violence similar to the one that marred Arab Spring demonstrations in several Arab countries, warning that some parties could be “mobilizing” the protesters to achieve malicious goals.

Y.R.

M.T.

Comments 10
Default-user-icon Nassrallah (Guest) over 8 years

Thank You Qatar
Shoukran Qatar

Thumb -phoenix1 over 8 years

Un autre con jaune de troll.

Thumb -phoenix1 over 8 years

Wow, this is something.

Thumb freedomarch over 8 years

Hariri slams!!! Seems that naharnet writers are looking for problems. We care about Mashnouk and Hriri are both free to say what they want.

Missing humble over 8 years

The idiots can believe anything. The idea is to keep feeding their brain with nonsense to keep lowering their intellectual capacity.
Today it is almost zero, but they want to maintain it at zero.
Can you imagine that Lebanon is now behind Eritrea!!!

Thumb ex-fpm over 8 years

طفل سوري ضحية رصاص تشييع عنصر من "حزب الله" قضى في الزبداني
http://www.annahar.com/article/264167-طفل-سوري-ضحية-رصاص-تشييع-عنصر-من-حزب-الله-قضى-في-الزبداني

Thumb marcus over 8 years

you want something more heartbreaking:
بالفيديو والصور: الطفل السوري الذي شغل العالم
http://www.lebanese-forces.com/2015/09/02/syrian-kid-turkey/

Default-user-icon why (Guest) over 8 years

why are m8 medias so pissed at the protests going so far as to invent stories, conspiracies and accusations? is it because they've discovered that the Lebanese all lebanese including shias could think for themselves without some dude in a turban and a god complex telling them what to think?

Thumb -phoenix1 over 8 years

Just because the youth have caught the mafia by total surprise, it doesn't mean that the mafia can now come and attempt to create fake stories on them. The You Stink campaign has taken everyone of them by total surprise, and now they are trembling, just like they did to the Syrians, "faja2nekoun Mou?". The mafia, led by that dirty old plagiarist Claoun have not hesitated for a moment to try and assassinate the characters of the organizers of the demos. One guest at MTV's Walid Abboud was literally slurping the butt of Sayed Hassan and saying so much BS on these youth, why? The youth movement is not about to go anytime soon, but the politicians of both M8 and M14 should start shopping for suitcases, soon if not now!!

Thumb marcus over 8 years

hahahahahahahahah! I fell off my chair... i did;)))))