After blasts, protesters in Beirut want France to intervene in Lebanon

Days after two blasts ripped through Beirut, Lebanon is still picking the pieces and sliding dangerously close to the brink.

First came an economic collapse, then a deadly pandemic and now the blasts. Three lakh people have been left homeless in a matter of a few seconds. Lebanon neither has the money nor the bandwidth to build shelter homes for the survivors.

The shock of the blasts has turned into anger with citizens blaming political leaders calling them incompetent and corrupt. The outpouring is so strong that people of Lebanon want a revolution and they are even ready for foreign intervention.

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They want a foreign power - a former coloniserto take charge of their country. It's almost unheard of in the modern world. WION is the only network from India tracking this story from the first dayand from Ground Zero.

Citizens in Lebanon have lost all faith in their government. They trust a foreign government more than their own elected officials. There was a protest against the government of Lebanon which tookplace when French President Emmanuel Macron was in Beirut on Thursday.

The citizenswant France to intervene in Lebanon’s crisis. They want France to back a revolution that would lead to the downfall of Lebanon’s political elite. France once ruled Lebanon. French President Emmanuel Macron was mobbed by a crowd during his visit to Beirut. They called their own president a "terrorist" and demanded a fall of the regime.

Macron promised that he won’t let aid fall into the hands of the corrupt. Lebanon was under French rule a hundred years ago. After the end of the World War-I, Lebanon was occupied by the allied forces. It was placed under French military administration. In 1923, the League of Nations gave the mandate for Lebanon and Syria to France which wasto be administered by France.

Lebanon became fully independent only in 1946 after World War-II ended. Now, there are thousands who want a return to the past. A petition has been floated to put Lebanon under a French mandate once again for 10 years. The petition got more than 50,000 signatures in 24 hours.

It couldn’t get worse for the Lebanon government. The French president did what no senior Lebanese politician has done so far, he visited the worst affected areas to see the suffering first hand and struck a chord. The anger swelled and the protests became violent. For Lebanon's elected leaders it's a major crisis of credibility and the days ahead don't look easy.

The big verdict is yet to come. The verdict in the Hariri trial. In 2005, a car bomb attack had killed former prime minister Rafik al Hariri. The killing had ruptured the country. A Sunni leader was killed and the accused were Shia men belonging to members of the powerful Hezbollah. For 15 years, a United Nations-backed tribunal has heard the case. The Hezbollah has rejected them. The case was heard in The Netherlands.

The verdict is expected on August, 18. It could inflame political and sectarian tensions. It's like Murphy's law - everything that could go wrong, is going wrong for Lebanon. The killing of Hahriri had upended the politics, not just of Lebanon, but of the entire West Asian region for years mainly because the Hezbollah has been blamed for the attack which is a Shiite militia now also a political party. The Hezbollah holds veto power over all cabinet decisions in Lebanon. They run the government and remain arch enemies of Lebanon's neighbour Israel.

It's quite a cocktail of conflicts. The streets have erupted once again. The citizens of Lebanon have launched yet another protest. On Thursday, many of them took to the streets. They have bigger battles to fight than the virus from Wuhan. Lebanon is witnessing an existential crisis.