The Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri on Tuesday tendered his resignation. While announcing the resignation of his government on Tuesday, he said he would hand over his letter to the President.
He said his decision to resign his position was because “No one is bigger than the country.”
Hariri’s announcement came several hours after large groups of youths overran protest sites in downtown Beirut, ransacking tents and stalls set up by thousands of demonstrators who for the past 13 days have demanded an overhaul of the ruling class and an end to rampant corruption.
The embattled leader said he intended to make a “positive shock” by quitting, claiming that doing so served “the country’s dignity and safety”. Over the past fortnight he has tabled reforms, including the abolishment of several cabinet positions, and some cuts to spending, but the moves have fallen short of the structural changes demanded by combustible street protests across the country.
Hariri’s supporters spent much of Tuesday trying to talk him out of quitting, fearing even deeper instability in Lebanon, where political uncertainty and extreme levels of government debt have caused widespread alarm in recent months and spilled over into mass demonstrations, the scale of which had not been seen for more than a decade.
