In an address to the nation, the outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab estimated that political calculations extinguish any glimmer of hope in Lebanon, while the population faces major logistical problems to obtain drugs, milk or even gasoline, whose prices exceed their financial capacities. He also denounced the economic situation which pushes many competent people into exile.
This crisis could thus threaten the very foundations of the Lebanese state, its constitution and its institutions.
This crisis was induced by an accumulation of errors, notes the outgoing Prime Minister, in previous financial policies. He recalls that his government has nevertheless adopted a plan to end the crisis and started negotiations with the IMF before facing certain obstacles.
Hassan Diab thus warned against the daily consequences of the economic crisis, believing that the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund call for the constitution of a government and confirming the affirmation of the content of the World Bank report which estimated in a recently published report that this crisis may be one of the worst in the world since 1850.
We are unable to form a government to solve the economic problems, the political class failed to live up to the challenges, and the blockade enforced outside Lebanon.
Hassan Diab
He therefore calls for a new government to be formed to deal with the financial, social and economic crisis, for the resumption of negotiations with the IMF and for the application of the recovery plan adopted by its Council of Ministers.
The reduction in funds allocated to the subsidy program formally announced
The Prime Minister thus formally announced the gradual reduction of the subsidy program for the import of basic necessities, denouncing the shortages expected due to the storage by some traders of these. Contraband must also be combated.
Also foreign pressure would be exerted to prevent international aid to reach Lebanon, also denounces Hassan Diab.
The inability to form a government, believes the Prime Minister, to face the situation and external pressures push Lebanon towards a total collapse of which the Lebanese population could be victim.
“I ask you to be patient with any decision taken by any party that worsens their suffering,” said Hassan Diab before calling on the political forces to make concessions to deal with the current situation.
