Mahmoud Barakat
22 November 2018•Update: 23 November 2018
By Wassim Seifeddine
BEIRUT
Lebanon marked the 75th anniversary of its independence on Thursday with military parades held in capital Beirut attended by top officials.
President Michel Aoun placed a wreath at a memorial for military martyrs and lit Beirut’s Torch of Independence.
In a televised address broadcast on the eve of the anniversary, Aoun lamented that the process of forming a new government -- ongoing since May -- had caused "an irrevocable loss of time”.
On Nov. 22 of each year, Lebanon marks its independence, which was declared in 1943. In 1946, France -- who had received a UN “mandate” to govern Lebanon after World War -- ended its military presence in the country.
