Washington Wields Sanctions Against the Bank of Lebanon!

In the eyes of the United States, the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, represents “trust” and is prohibited from holding him responsible for the financial and monetary collapse of the country. The words were spoken by the United States ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shi’a, last June during an interview with OTV, considering that, in response to a question about Salameh’s role, “it is not correct that no person or institution be used as a scapegoat for Lebanon’s economic collapse. ” “With great confidence in the international financial community.” Xia was not satisfied that she “gave her opinion” safely, but rather mobilized all her defenses as soon as the issue of her dismissal was raised, to avoid damaging him. He visited the head of the interim government, Hassan Diab, and clearly expressed his country’s refusal to replace Salameh with another central bank governor. Therefore, when the “Wall Street Journal” publishes a report entitled “The Bank of Lebanon is feeding serious concerns about corruption”, this is an “indication” that the US pressure on Lebanon is heading towards greater militancy. What is meant here is not the security, the trust of the Americans and their first deposit in Lebanon, but the Central Bank as an institution.

The “Wall Street Journal” is the newspaper that published the news of the imposition of sanctions on the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Representative Gebran Bassil, hours before the decision was officially announced. It is acquired by “media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News TV.” Murdoch, who is of Australian descent, is classified right-wing in politics and supports the campaigns of the Republican Party of the United States morally and financially. The Wall Street Journal’s publication of the report on the Banque du Liban is not a passing matter and can only be treated as a “wake-up call” and a serious threat. The same article considered that “the threat of possible sanctions is a step that Washington usually takes towards its enemies, such as North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.” However, the United States decided to exploit “Lebanon’s dire need for emergency financing, to demand criminal scrutiny in hopes of uncovering the mysterious operations of the central bank.” The newspaper here acknowledges that Washington is exploiting the Lebanese crisis and working to inflame it, with the aim of political gain. And “US officials” leak information that no “rescue plan” will be approved without adopting the program that the International Monetary Fund wants. The crisis in Lebanon provides a unique opportunity to use financial diplomacy to curb Hezbollah’s influence. ” The report cites “US and Western officials and diplomats” who pressure the Central Bank “as part of an international campaign to fight Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, fight corruption and alleviate the economic and political crisis,” accusing Riad Salameh “to obstruct criminal scrutiny, in cooperation with government agencies linked to With Hezbollah.”
Maliciously, the report was excerpted from Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech when it appeared, explaining that there is no relationship between the Lebanese banking system and Hezbollah, denying that the latter is putting pressure on the pound and creating a crisis of the dollar on the market, because “Hezbollah brings dollars to Lebanon.” The Wall Street Journal used this phrase to mislead Western public opinion that “Salameh was aware of Hezbollah’s financial activities,” despite stating that “Salameh closed some Hezbollah accounts at the request of US officials. “
The newspaper requested an interview with Salameh, but he refused. He cited “Western officials” that the central bank’s weak supervision over the banking system “helped promote rampant corruption.” The “first victim” chose the former member of the Banking Control Commission, Ahmed Safa, accusing him of “running Hezbollah’s financial business.”
The US threats to the Banque du Liban are not supposed to “cheer up” the Lebanese affected by the destructive policies of Riyadh Salameh’s society and economy. Washington’s engine has never been to “fight corruption”, neither through the sanctions it imposes nor through the media reports that hired “LBC” and “M TV» to be published. What are the standards of corruption adopted by the United States? Why did the government threaten to stop his loans if Salameh laid off? Was he unfamiliar with BDL’s policies and their financial games, until he was surprised to learn that they never, or any of the commercial banks, forgave them with information on “suspicious” American customers?
What the United States is doing is a dangerous project, and it “justifies” its decision that “the current system is so fraternal with Hezbollah that it is not adequate to deal with it.” Therefore, it has no other solution than to let Lebanon completely collapse, hoping that it can impose a new regime and select “representatives.” It was renewed after the “mission” of the current officials ended. This talk was recently expressed by Dorothy Shea in front of several people, without being convinced by the words of some of them that “the percentage of Hezbollah affected by all these pressures does not exceed 10%, due to its capacity for self-reliance.”
The American message does not seem to be directed against Riad Salameh, but against Lebanon. It is not unlikely to be in the context of the US-French competition for Salame’s legacy in the governance of the Bank of Lebanon, and the exaggeration of Washington’s ability to impose comprehensive sanctions on Lebanon, by punishing the Banque du Liban ( not its governor, because punishing Salameh ends with his general, not personal “legal” effects (To fire him and appoint a replacement).

French sources deny that the Central Bank of France audits the accounts of the Bank of Lebanon: Salameh does not approve any external audit

Yesterday was Riad Salameh’s day in the western media. Apart from the “Wall Street Journal”, the French newspaper “Le Monde” attacked him by publishing a report entitled: “The Bank of Lebanon is a state within a state that cannot be touched.” The report comes after Salameh visited Paris for a week and spread, through close associates, an atmosphere of approval for the French Central Bank to initiate a criminal audit of the Bank of Lebanon accounts. The “Le Monde” article denied this information, noting that “the Bank of France does not intend to conduct any audits, and only undertakes to provide technical assistance as a trusted third party.” The French newspaper revealed, after reviewing the Deloitte and Ernst & Young report for the year 2018, a “suspicious increase in the assets of the Banque du Liban of $ 6 billion due to questionable accounting procedures”, and that the auditors “did not they were authorized to see the gold reserves owned by the Banque du Liban. ”The newspaper describes the criminal scrutiny as” an essential element to save Lebanon economically, but runs the risk of not seeing the light. “French sources add Al -Akhbar that Riad Salameh “does not approve an external audit and affirms that it has dealt with audit firms that certify the veracity of its accounts, and this is not true. The Banque du Liban is not transparent and its precedents push international organizations and the IMF to request external criminal audits As for the Central Bank of France, “its provision of assistance is not considered an audit.”

The Wall Street Journal: The Lebanon Crisis Is An Opportunity To Use Financial Diplomacy To Curb Hezbollah’s Influence

Those close to the French “veto” do not deny it, but link what Le Monde published with one of its owners, Matthew Pegas, who was director of “Lazare” in France until his resignation in 2019. Regardless of the background, the information from “Al-Akhbar” confirms that Salameh, during his visit to France, “did not meet with any financial official related to the Lebanese file.” The ruler “lost the confidence of the international authorities in him, who established the specifications of the new ruler, who has no political ambitions, who is familiar with the details of the Lebanese administration, and provides the required financial reports to international organizations. . The name is ready. Intervention in a decision of such strategic importance does not depend on the election of the central bank governor, but goes beyond him to “draw up a new plan for restructuring the banking sector, which the new governor must implement.” The foreign decision was made not to “lend to Lebanon, even if Saad Hariri forms his government. What is required is a political concession from Hezbollah and a criminal audit.”
On the other hand, the President of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, called tomorrow the mixed parliamentary committees to study the issue of subsidizing fuels, wheat, food and medicine and reducing mandatory reserves, in conjunction with the session held by the Council Central de la Banque du Liban the same day, to discuss the support mechanisms in the phase. Coming.

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