The US will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the Lebanese people affected by a deadly and devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in early August, a state official said on Wednesday, but will not endorse the current government. until real reform takes place.
David Hale, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, spoke candidly about Lebanese government corruption and incompetence in a briefing with reporters following a recent trip to the region.
He said that while the US remains committed to tackling the immediate humanitarian crisis – the US has so far provided $ 18 million in emergency aid – it will not provide a bailout for the Lebanese government.
“We will not provide that kind of help in the long run until we see a government that is actually capable of reform and change,” Hale said.
He further criticized the government, saying that the leaders of Lebanon “ignored their responsibility to meet the needs of the people and opposed the kind of deep, fundamental reforms that were needed.”
He added that ‘we can not repair that from the outside. Lebanese leaders need to demonstrate the political will and dedication to that and that was my main message. ”
Lebanon is considered a country on the brink of collapse even before the August 4 jump amid an economic crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The source of the explosion is thought to be a fire in the city’s port that spread to nearly 3,000 tons abandoned and improperly stored, highly explosive ammonium nitrate. The blast killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands and left hundreds of thousands of people with destroyed homes.
The explosion was seen as a dark metaphor for the country’s trajectory and years of public frustration with the political elite and a government that failed to rehabilitate the country and provide basic services in the aftermath of its 15-year civil war. which ended in 1990.
The Lebanese government resigned in the aftermath of the explosion and is in a caring role until new political leaders are elected.
Hale, who has traveled to the country multiple times since 1988 over the course of his career, said he was overwhelmed by the devastation and that the anger and frustration among the public was “extremely potential.”
He said he had heard a wide range of opinions from political leaders on the need for government reform, saying that some understood the need for change, while others were in complete denial.
“Some of them are aware of the issue they are dealing with the public, and are trying to develop a concept of governance that can be responsive,” Hale said.
He added that reforms needed included combating corruption, improving transparency, restructuring public debt, consolidating the electricity system and ending the practice of sending customs revenue at ports to political parties instead of the government, among others.
Other political leaders are in denial, he said.
“Others found me denying it and trying to rewrite it and drive the moment out in the hope that the public will lose interest and, whether they do not understand the scale of the problem, or are not ready to tackle it.”
Hale praised all Lebanese civilians who came in a show of force to block the streets of the city by block of pun from the explosion and no presence of the government is absent.
“Honestly, the meetings that were most rewarding were those with civil society,” he said.
Hale did not say whether the U.S. government would support a new Lebanese government that includes Hezbollah, but mentioned that the U.S. has previously collaborated with a government that includes the terrorist organization and its political party at the head of the Ministries of Health and Industry.
He instead sacrificed public frustration with political leaders spreading to Hezbollah, pointing out that an effigy of the organization’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was burned at Beirut’s Martyrs Square as part of protests last week.
“This is an acknowledgment, I think, that people are beginning to realize that Hezbollah is also part of the corrupt, self-serving system,” he said.
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