Deadlock in lebanon its widening the sectarian divide and leading toward riots in the violence politicians are failed to form a government and the position of Prime Minister remains take so who can lead the country out of crisis this is inside story. And welcome to the program. Now they had been more than 40 days of largely peaceful protests and levanon but as the political stalemate continues the country is sliding into town while and in recent days the demonstrations attend more violence on sunday supporters of the 2 main shia groups attacked protesters in beirut and then unrest followed in other parts of lebanon with various sectarian backgrounds sunni leader and caretaker Prime Minister saad hariri says hes not going to form the next government heres an example of what can happen when rival groups meet in the streets. Better come through what happened yesterday is that people from the Amal Movement in his pillow were protesting we didnt talk to them or anything when we were sitting inside the tents and some people started here on the street suddenly rocks and bottles started to fall on us beyond we surrounded and protected the amal and hezbollah groups through petrol on us and the tents caught far while young people and women were in it the army relocated us to another change which they surrounded because all of us were inside of a. Supporter shot in the year to disperse people in the army also acquired a shot in the so they left if the army how to. Lift. Correspondents anahata has more from beirut. About a month ago the Prime Minister resigned he said he did the opposite he did the call from the streets but the president asked him to stay on in a caretaker capacity and ever since the ruling elite those who are in power have been negotiating with him on the shape of a new government he is a popular leader he is also the son new leader in lebanon and this is a country which is theres a deep divide between sects and if one sect feels that they have been left out of power then that is dangerous despite what we have been seeing in the streets the. Protest movement at the end of the day like i mentioned if someone like leaves office then the Sunni Community will feel that he has been the scapegoat why should he be the only one who doesnt return to office why not the christian leader the president of the country michel aoun the or the leader of the House Speaker why dont they leave office and heed the call from the street now how do you say that hes no longer interested hes blaming really his partners in government saying that you have been blaming me for standing in the way of a solution that i have been insisting that im the only one who should return to office so no im stepping out of the way you can form a government on your own what he has just done is put the ruling elite the hezbollah led alliance in a corner because if they go ahead and form a government it will be considered a one sided government which is unlikely to get the support of the International Community well lets take a just how we reached this current political crisis nationwide protests began in october against high living costs Poor Public Services and government corruption and by the end of the month Prime Minister saad hariri had stepped down reforms were proposed a new Prime Minister but it wasnt enough to appease protests and former finance minister Mohammad Safadi was forced to abandon his bid to leave the government meanwhile normal life has. Been put on hold across the country the unrest has disrupted banks schools and universities all of which have at times been forced to close their doors. Well joining me now are our guests fastly and bear in bay ridge we have even had the name net whos a political commentator on skype in cambridge massachusetts we have rami koori who is a professor at the American University of beirut and also a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy school and also in beirut we have half an eunice whos an author of trends of business and is also a professor of International Business management a warm welcome to you all now i do want to start with this announcement by saad hariri that he doesnt want to form a government he doesnt want to be the new Prime Minister rami did this come as a surprise was his who are really thinking here nobody knows what her is thinking except her you the whatever hes thinking changes every once in a while because hes a politician in a very violent our country goes through a very tumultuous period a lot of the actions and statements that were getting from either individuals or political groups where there are sections underground or media statements theres all political trucking essentially because youve got 2 big camps in lebanon one of them is trying to radically change the government system of the National Values of lebanon as manifested in its policies which is the protesters and their allies and then youve got the other which is the some of the traditional parties who are. Not really happy with the protest and theyre trying to maintain the old system more or less as it is with with moderate changes and therefore any statements that you get you hear like how the it is or are partly designed for political drama. Partly they represent serious frustration as well because the countries of origin to a terrible economic collapse of muslims themselves well lets take a closer look at that statement from saad hariri and the one that you just heard. Least he said im sticking by the rule not to me but someone else to form a government that meets the aspirations of young men and women and then he went on to say what is more dangerous than the Major National crisis and shop economic crisis our country is passing through and which is preventing us from dealing with these 2 and to try and crises is the stage of chronic denial being expressed on several occasions over the past few weeks now abraham let me ask you who is he accusing of this chronic denial here well basically hes trying i think hes basically trying to add to to send a message to the other Political Parties his previous allies as we see now that hes hes not in good terms and hes not ok with the kind of conditions that have been trying to put for him to form the government we see that this has all kinds of interplay between themselves and for their internal going negotiations in between the ruling elite to reach a certain condition whereby they can form a government us build the old way that they have been using prior to the revolution this is the way they dealt with the other and now we can see how this is also manifesting on the streets with what we call rough negotiation sending out. Kind of. Trying to to bring back the sectarian and civil war memories to enhance the negotiation conditions in between themselves but i do want to come to that violence in a 2nd but before we get there has and i want to ask you because hariri is is saying that hes chosen to do this to expedite the formation of a new government is this likely to speed things up or could it just delay things even further. It would definitely delay things even further because its an interplay between the traditional parties as one of the guests has just mentioned and many accusations to her really is that hes awaiting a certain pay regional password or an international password until the next that becomes. Actually 11 on we have we have never been in this volatile uncertain complex and ambiguous country this is a Decision Makers by ourselves we always wait a certain password we always wait a certain deal which is which is usually cooked at the regional level for example at in saudi arabia and i thought if or in a doha or even internationally while awaiting the talks between maybe russia and the us between the p 5 plus one countries and other regional or International Powers so i think that this interplay gives have you the more time to know how the how the International Agenda is being a theater and what would the destiny of lebanon and until then the things in the streets are escalating and destress can never be controlled its beyond the control of the traditional parties because everything 11 is sectarian everything 11 can be politicized well there are now ostensibly consultations sehgal to thursday and so let me ask you then rami other actually any real alternatives to hariri and theyre all of us in lots of backroom deals being done here and as you said it does look like a lot of this is about trying to place pressure on hezbollah what is the next move now well its not only hezbollah as well as the main party but youve got presence for d some. Smaller groups so you have 2 major camps really shape the political landscape. In lebanon there are of course many doctors lebanon is a country of anything lebanon is a country of amazing human talent but i live there and ive been there for many years and are sure every day its just extraordinary the amount of human you have even if youre. Strange you got a sunni or shia or a christian there are hundreds of people who could run these posters up the question of are there personalities or alternatives its a question of will the political power structure of the sectarian oligarchic system that has run the country for 3040 years will it be flexible enough to meet some or many of the demands of the masses of people in the streets who probably represent over a half a country i would guess is there any but civility in the traditional power structure or theres a traditional structures weve seen recently where the street demonstrations of theres an assistant keeping the old ariel sharon the isis them which is the whole reason why half the countries are on the street i should ensure that syria has done wanting to jonathan has or hasnt i feel yeah i get yeah i guess that we scored 0 on flexibility and agility that i did and powers who have been in and government or in parliament or heading the maples of since the major power structure of the country want the want to resign or dont want to give they give up very quickly it will take months and months especially that as i said before we can decide we can decide on our own so and even the protesters demands are not clear there is no consensus on a clear fiscal policy oriented policy or whats the alternative of the current government maybe chaos would be the other the other alternative as long as there is no clear leadership on the side of the protests or of the protesters then the other parties wont give up and its clear that they wont be giving up especially that we have a great driver lead between the Major PoliticalPolitical Parties 11 on the christian parties amongst themselves and between the christians and the muslims and the the sunni muslims and the shia muslims and its being translated on the streets yesterday we have we have seen the confrontation on the border the lines between. Christian how you populated dining room in the highly populated muslim neighboring city which is a show year this would have been bloody confrontation if the army didnt you saw. I think that things are escalating. Basted month yeah and i feel like you dont agree. Yes i think this is the kind of narrative that the political position of political power is trying to disseminate this is the kind of discourse that exclusively put all of the all of the players in this and that in the within the ruling elite and the guards thought to leave the revolution and the kind of play as a major player now in the equation for i believe that despite the fact that many of the. Of the 3rd of the violence thats been happening on the street as a son mentioned has been initiated by. The ruling elites groups but nevertheless we have to to look on the other side and see the respond of the of the of the protesters they have been sticking to the peaceful protests and they buy they and today we have a set and for the mothers and there are many to to send a clear message that we will not go back to the civil war and the middle of the civil war this is the kind of. Negative that the additional powers are trying to disseminate to create ok how are you going to help how can you go and how can you go to year and all you have all this is just just element if i if i if i may ask just if i may ask so that said i oh yes how can you make sure that all the profit that all the protests are for this peaceful for this peaceful kind of of evolution what about blocking the roads on very sensitive areas for example and now me which is which is the entrance to the south which is illusion which lets me imagine that we are structurally a house and that me and sort of this to be just in one of the streets i dont know and so i got another one example or not would you like when you want. To go ahead so. No for the police the for example the blocking the roads are always have been peaceful and there has been not a single violent against any person on the streets except from the from the from the from the from the powers themselves against the protesters so this is a big indicator of how this peaceful disappears that is of course this is one of the piece with one of the protests the tools to block the roads and despite despite it being a severe tool but it has been used and now they are not being as its been not been in use for quite a while in response to the people is the man lets get back one thing clear all the bones of been initiated. Was a gentleman a gentleman i wanted anything but i really his own little light in all of green actually ive timidly this is about different narratives right everyones going to be pointing fingers at everyone else is a man i really want to bring to us until very recently thats just hasnt let me finish up until very recently these had on largely largely peaceful protests and just in the last few days we have seen groups of primarily young men coming out and some of been vandalizing shops they have been setting cars on fire weve heard that theyve been chanting shia some of them are from hezbollah some of them are affiliated with them are we i mean the and theyve identified themselves as being that so rami let me turn to you here do you feel like this is a turning point for the movement a turning point for the protest movement and also for the dynamic on the streets. Yes it is certainly is a turning point to see even more than a turning point its really a moment of historical reckoning for the country of lebanon and lebanon is really different from other countries other iraq and theres many ways but in many ways its not the front its a country thats ravaged by poverty corruption mismanagement a political elite that treats its people almost with this day and they go on for 45 days now and theres no real serious attempt to form a government while the lira is. Declining and becoming stresses are growing and poverty is expanding the debt is booming so its a credible mirror of the incompetent and so the ruling elites in all almost all the countries not all of them so this is a moment that really challenges whether lebanon as a sovereign country can manage itself. Well we heard from one of the my colleagues that foreign people often determine everything that goes on in the country thats true but it happens with the consent of the lebanese so its the protesters are basically saying we want to stop the tradition of the last 304050 years of mismanagement and government a month because of any of ideological reasons we dont like iran we dont like saudi arabia no its because the 2 thirds of the country as is poor and isis are producing them theres no hope for the young people and thats why youve got all these high school out there on the street so this is a historic moment where the lebanese really face themselves in the mirror and have to decide are they a serious country or are they basically just a bunch of sectarian clubs and militias that are going to keep dueling it out on the streets while the masses of people emigrate or suffer and thats the real question and i know you have strong feelings about this im going to go to you we havent had an official condemnation of the violence that weve seen from the house and nasrallah is that potentially being read on the streets as a tacit consent to continue with this kind of behavior. 1st id like to agree with guarding the. Behavior of the Political Parties or the political elite of the country that he guarding the level of unprecedented corruption they have a drive to which which has many to percussions at the economic level at the monetary level etc and my students are amongst the protesters and ive been with the protesters until the 4th day until a Prime Minister had his paper of the fall which is highly criticized yet we could have built on it because i believe that the solution is not on the streets not by blocking roads because this can be beyond the control of the protesters themselves and beyond the control of the traditional Political Parties it can be beyond the control and i dont like to have any evolutionary change and lebanon with with with a certain amount of blood which we are fed of. Actually id like to have evolutionary change and the evolution of change can take place in 2 years from now in the next parliamentary elections regarding the protestors who are mainly who are a pro hizbullah or. Movement they might have been based on a sign sent by their major Political Parties or it could have been based on their. Own initiative done by them definitely against that doesnt represent the actually the lack of political statement by say it has on the law and maybe it can raise some questions yet Many Political figures from hezbollah have condemned this moves but whether they have condemned it or not when you have a Political Party with more than a 1000000. 1000000 citizens who are the fraud this Political Party you cant control a 1000000 maybe a few 100 of these people want to want to resort to this. And maybe they are not educated enough maybe. They want to show that. Theyre very sure and theres a lot of speculation going on here about what is motivating a lot of people but all 3 of you have talked about at the heart of all of this and the heart of this protest movement where economic grievances and thats really where this all began and thats what brought people out onto the streets is it is this deep economic crisis and now things seem to be deteriorating even further so i want to take a look at this a shortage in u. S. Dollars has now caused several businesses to close and many people to lose their jobs its also driven up the cost of goods in a country where almost everything is imported and now banks have reopened but many of also put informal capital controls into place so lets have a listen to what some of the protesters have had to say about that. They are at the university wants to convert our tuition fees to dollars as we all know that the lebanese leader is in danger and he can collapse and already there are no dollars in the country if the university wants to save yourself how youll save ourselves from continue our deflation in this country so no we want our payments to remain in. The midst hamas will remind them of old man the nation were not able to withdraw money were not able to get paid were not able to live i hope that all the lebanese people all of those who have Bank Payments and loans for the house no one goes and makes any payment the banks are the 1st thing we need to fight against so abraham what is the way out from here is a technocratic government the answer would it have the legitimacy in the International Community to be able to function and to try to rescue the country from this economic morass that its in. Well basically i think the most important thing and the most logical thing to do is for willingly to listen to what the demands of the professors are and they are asking for an independent government an independent Prime Minister who can only gain back the trust of that have been his people as well as the International Community this economy crisis has many accumulations of policies or bad policies and for a long time nevertheless we dont expect that this will be resolved without regaining the trust no one is is trusting that anyone from this establishment will really really it is able to make a serious change or to see a. Major. Policy change in policy that will reflect positively on this country so what theyre doing it right now is that it basically just roaming around and out in circles and this trying to to negotiate an end to it and big from the same pool that they have been picking for Prime Ministers the club etc and. Picking thin profiles who are have been. Basically this is regarded by the protesters. As a not acceptable and they are still playing the same game and wasting time this gives you an indicator of how this ruling what is the what are they doing so basically i think when there is a will not be easy time for it for them and i think its going to take a while before they reach. An understanding of how they need to submit to the demands of this of the people in the streets running i see you nodding there so let me come to you and give you the final say here are you hopeful sitting outside lebanon and watching whats happening from from a 3rd Party Perspective do you feel hopeful that there is going to be some kind of resolution anytime soon to this crisis. Im hopeful in the long run because the lebanese are incredibly talented people dont and they have put up with a lot over the last 3040 years and theyve spoken with very clear voices that would never have such a large number of people expressing what they want so in the long run there will be some kind of resolution in the short run i think what the most striking thing i mean i was in lebanon last week for a week and i went to the demonstrations i talked to a lot of people and the most striking thing to me is the kind of confusion that defines much of the ruling elite including the incumbent government the president some of the Shiite Movement some of the christian movements the druze all of them the top people in lebanon ive spoken out. Mildly about whats going on they dont really know how to react because theyve never confronted a situation where their own citizenry is asserting its values and its desires and its rights as citizens and this is a whole new ball game that we started in sudan we saw shiria we d see in tunisia this is where lebanon is part parcel of the entire arab world and the real challenge is the challenge of statehood and Good Governance of the citizens are saying we have a voice in this senate be a bumpy for some months i think until until enough people in the whole country suffer from the economic collapse and they say we cant live like this anymore nor are some external power to step in and and help fix the situation with huge injections of money but thats been part of the problem in the past so its really a change in the whole governance system as what is required and the governance system in place now is unlikely to give in to that totally so what we have to look for a compromise on the place to look right now is the new government of the form i mean they technocrats and and then so many old guard how many mild old guard people some kind of compromise that starts the political process and immediately deals with the stabilization of the. Research the real issue right now and as you say certainly a bumpy road still ahead a ride which will be continuing to watch very closely thank you to all of our guests at zebrahead manana rami hoary and housen eunice and thank you to the watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion do go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. And side story and you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. And side story for meanest us here 10 the whole team here and i i think. 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So im fully back to bill with a look at our main stories on aljazeera in a dramatic escalation of iraqs antigovernment protests crowds have toshi raney and consulate in najaf a holy city for shia muslims 100 some rounded the building lighting tires blankets and anything else they could find while chanting iran out they accuse tehran of propping up iraqs government which they want replaced this is a 2nd time this month any reading consulate has been targeted by protesters 3 weeks ago Security Forces defending the site in karbala killed 4 demonstrators earlier we spoke to our reporter mana jump in