Downtown Beirut Bounces Back to Life

Downtown Beirut Bounces Back to Life

Downtown Beirut has bounced back to life with restaurants, sidewalk cafes and nightclubs slowly resuming their operations as joyous Lebanese headed to the fancy commercial area to enjoy their night out.

Premier Fouad Saniora and his wife Houda on Thursday were seen having dinner at one of the restaurants in the area and then taking a walk among the crowds.

Asked by An Nahar daily of what he thought about the crowd in the downtown area, Saniora said: "It”s an answer to those who tried to bring an end to life in Beirut."

"People are expressing their willingness to live…Beirut is for all the Lebanese, it doesn”t deserve to be treated like the Israelis have dealt with it," Saniora added.

People started heading to downtown Beirut for the first time in 18 months after the Hizbullah-led opposition removed a protest camp outside the Grand Serail.