French Foreign Minister: Paris hosts conference on aid to Lebanon in November

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced Wednesday that his country will organize a conference on humanitarian aid to Lebanon during the month of November.

Reuters reported that the conference was initially scheduled for the end of October.

The French Foreign Minister indicated that the International Contact Group on Lebanon will meet in the coming days to emphasize the need to form a government.

The pace of the financial and economic crisis in Lebanon is worsening, with the Lebanese pound continuing to deteriorate against the US dollar as it lost 80% of its purchasing power.

The Union of Importers of Medical Supplies and Equipment, Salma Assi, warned about a great disaster facing the medical supplies sector, due to the lack of stock of companies and the impossibility of importing from abroad after the banks freeze the funds of imported companies.

Assi told “Sputnik”: “For more than a year, we have been suffering from this problem, as all corporate funds were frozen by banks in May and June 2019, and the support did not include medical supplies until the first month of 2020, and we agreed with a bank. ” Lebanon states that the amount should be 240 million dollars within 10 days, and to date only 80 million have been covered, that is, 30% of the percentage, and the files take several months. “

He added that “what has aggravated the crisis is that the companies’ stocks do not contain more than 30% of the merchandise, and we can no longer import,” noting that “the Banque du Liban issues random decisions that cancel support for some inputs. doctors, two days ago canceled the subsidy for all hospital sterilizers. ” At a time when companies have priced it to hospitals at the official exchange rate of 1,500 Lebanese pounds, and now that the support that companies must pay abroad at the black market exchange rate has been lifted, which leads to the bankruptcy of companies.