Today, Wednesday, the governor of the Banque du Liban was absent from the session of the parliamentary commission in the House of Representatives, where the mandatory reserve and state support for basic products and fuels are discussed, contenting himself with sending his second deputy, Salim Shaheen, which angered several representatives, and one of them considered that the governor of the Banque du Liban was absent In a personal capacity, an insult to the Lebanese.
In an interview with Al-Hadath TV on Tuesday night, Riad Salameh issued a series of controversial statements, similar to statements he made before and during the onset of the Lebanese crisis, that the Lebanese pound is a good thousand. The governor claimed that the depositors’ money was fine while it was in the banks, and claimed that the Banque du Liban had returned dollars to the banks. And as he stated on October 2 that the crisis has been left behind, Salameh considered during his interview that the banks will function normally again, as of March 2021.
And the ruler was mocked after answering Bassam Abu Zaid’s question that the Lebanese should withdraw his salary in local currency, and he cannot withdraw his salary in dollars, which is why tweeters scoff at his claims. Especially since the Lebanese have to withdraw their salary at the exchange rate of 1500 pounds and, in return, buy goods at The exchange rate is 8200 liras.
However, the reality in which the Lebanese live is completely unfair with the statements of the ruler. Banks are holding onto their money, and those who want to withdraw their deposits are being forced to do so in Lebanese pounds, which means they have lost more than 70% of their value, even if the depositor brings their money from abroad. The Lebanese who trusted the ruler when he assured them of the position of the lira in previous years, and kept their money in Lebanese banks, now have difficulty authenticating any statement issued by him, which is a negative point recorded in the Banque du Liban, since no central bank can operate in the absence of the trust factor.
Recently, the confidence of the Lebanese and the international community has also suffered another setback, following the report published by the Wall Street Journal, which warns of future sanctions against the Bank of Lebanon, and is due to the identification of the ruler with the class corrupt politics in Lebanon and mutual support in a relationship based on common interests that are not the victims. Except Lebanon and the Lebanese citizen.
The report places the governor of the Bank of Lebanon and the Central Bank as a whole in the category of accomplice of the corrupt, regardless of the US objective of pressuring Riad Salameh, either against official Lebanese institutions that are accomplices of Hezbollah, or to pressure To achieve certain demands, in both cases the situation has been complicated by the absence of Trust the most important Lebanese financial institution.
The situation is that the Governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, in recent years, used to walk between two fires or two red lines, a line drawn by the United States that prevented him from providing any support to “Hezbollah” and threatened him with fines and he removed the lid in case of collusion with him in money laundering operations. A line drawn by Hezbollah prevents Riad Salameh from going too far in implementing American demands.
The US suggestion to impose sanctions on the “Banque du Liban” can have two readings. First, it says that the United States seeks to attack official Lebanese institutions and the Lebanese economy, regarding these institutions as identical to Hezbollah, and considering that the party’s influence extends within the Central Bank and the Lebanese banking system, either directly or indirectly, to through his political allies protected by Riad Salameh. This means that the United States is pursuing a scorched earth policy towards Lebanon, which will not change with the change of American administration, according to Lebanese estimates that believe that the escalation of pressure will not stop with the departure of the current American administration and, therefore therefore, there are no fundamental changes after the coming to power of President Joe Biden.
The second reading is that the threat of sanctions aims to pressure the governor of the Banque du Liban to implement specific demands that naturally focus on tightening the screws on “Hezbollah” and preventing it from using the Lebanese banking system to launder money.
The readings vary and are in conflict, and the masses of the parties are distracted by mock victories among themselves or sterile discussions, while the subject is elsewhere, where the dispute between Iran and the United States intensifies and its full repercussions are they reflect in the Lebanese reality, adding to the mud of corruption and collapse … the scourge of external attacks. .
