prevent a "catastrophe". Aoun accused protesters of "stabbing the nation with a dagger" and accused protesters that blocked roads of "violating international law". Aoun also stated that "anyone who cannot find faith in the current Lebanese government can leave Lebanon and live somewhere else". Aoun's interview proved exceedingly unpopular with the protest movement, which began blocking dozens of arterial roads in Beirut and across Lebanon. Alaa Abou Fakhr, a Lebanese national, was shot and killed in Khalde at the ensuing protests. Protesters began appearing in the early morning of 13 November near the heavily fortified Baabda Presidential Palace to express dissatisfaction with President Aoun's speech a few hours earlier and picked up in pace as the day progressed. Hassan Diab cabinet and premiership vacuum Diab was appointed prime minister by President Michel Aoun following the resignation of Saad Hariri following the 2019–20 Lebanese protests, that started in October 2019. A new Lebanese cabinet led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab was formed in Lebanon on 21 January 2020, after agreement was reached by the heads of the involved political parties after nearly three months. The already delegitimized government assigned Diab and his new cabinet, despite ongoing public outrage against the new cabinet and citizen requests for a competent, independent, and technocratic government. The marketing campaign by the authoritative powers around the new cabinet were mired by supposed untruths such as Diab claiming to have met reformist representatives of the revolution but turned out to be regime supporters or the regime using the term "techno-political" to describe the new cabinet in order to justify the majority partisan appointments. On 10 August 2020, the government resigned following public anger over the 2020 Beirut explosions on 4 August but continued to govern as a caretaker government. Aoun appointed Moustapha Adib as prime minister designate on August 31 to succeed Diab. The latter renounced to form a government on September 26, 2020, because of the dissensions between political parties concerning the attribution of the ministries. Saad Hariri later announced on October that he was “definitely a candidate” for the formation of a new government. He was again appointed President of the Council of Ministers after binding parliamentary consultations led by Michel Aoun. On March 6, 2021, while Saad Hariri has still not managed to form a government, Diab denounces the situation of political and economic crisis and threatens to stop expediting current affairs by leaving