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A senior politician in Lebanon warned that the country could sink “like the Titanic” if a new government is not formed for the country.
“The whole country is in danger, the country has become a Titanic,” said Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament.
Lebanon remains without a government for 7 months after the resignation of the previous government, following the devastating explosions in the port of Beirut that shook the entire country.
This catastrophe coincided with a devastating economic crisis that pushed half of the country’s population below the poverty line and unleashed a state of anger and resentment that led citizens to come out in massive protests calling for the elimination of the political elite. of power, which is the elite whom they accuse of corruption, administrative failure and negligence.
These warnings came strongly worded by Berri during the opening of an emergency session of Parliament that was called to approve a loan worth $ 200 million to continue the flow of electricity and connect it to homes and facilities in the country for a period of two months.
The state electric company, Electricity Lebanon, needs these funds to purchase the fuel needed to operate the electric power plants, beginning later this month.
One of the four main power plants supplying electricity to the country stopped last Sunday due to a shortage of gas necessary to operate. The EDL justified that the station had stopped operating due to a problem in the unloading of cargo in containers and the navigation course of the Suez Canal was interrupted.
The EDL is financed by a loan that was allocated under the 2020 budget, while the interim government cannot hold meetings of the Council of Ministers to approve the budget for the new year.
Without a new government, the Lebanese parliament cannot undertake the reforms demanded by the international community in exchange for foreign aid, according to the BBC’s Beirut correspondent Martin Pattins.
Pattins added that the country has recently witnessed widespread debate among political leaders over the formation of the new government, while in recent months, the crisis is likely to worsen by the day over time.