French Foreign Minister(FM) Jean-Yves Le Drian announced today, Wednesday, that his country will organize a conference to regulate the flow of humanitarian aid to Lebanon next November.
News agencies reported that the conference was initially planned to be held at the end of October.
Le Drian explained to the French National Assembly (parliament) that the international contact group on Lebanon would meet in the coming days to confirm the need to form a government.
The pace of the financial and economic crisis in Lebanon is exacerbating, with the continued deterioration of the Lebanese lira's exchange rate against the US dollar.
The Lebanese currency has lost 80% of its purchasing power in recent weeks due to the complex political and economic crisis.
The Chief of Syndicate of Medical Supplies and Equipment Importers, Salma Assi, warned of a major disaster facing the medical supplies sector in Lebanon, due to the lack of companies' stocks, and the inability to import from abroad after banks freeze the funds of imported companies.
Assi affirmed that for more than a year, the national companies have been suffering from this issue, since all corporate funds were frozen by banks in May and June 2019, and the financial support did not include medical supplies until the first month of 2020.
The syndicate agreed with the Banque du Liban (the Lebanese central bank) that the sum of subsidies should be US$ 240 million within a 10-day deadline but only $ 80 million have been covered, meaning 30% of the percentage, and files take several months.
She went on to say that the shortage of funds led to exacerbate the crisis of medical supplies in Lebanon as the companies' stocks do not contain more than 30% of the goods, and importers can no longer import.
She noted that "the Banque du Liban issued random decisions that canceled support for some medical supplies, two days ago, and it also canceled the subsidy for all hospital sterilizers.
After the failure of the efforts of former Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adeeb to form a new government, the name of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri floated again, with more insistence of the "bilateral - Shiite" team.
On his part, MP Rola Al-Tabash, a member of the Future Parliamentary Bloc, considered that the "bilateral - Shiite" insistence on naming Prime Minister Saad Hariri to form the government stems from their conviction that he is able to achieve the confidence of the international and Arab communities, as he is the largest representative of the Sunni community and they acknowledge their ability to communicate with him well.
Al-Tabash said that Hariri was not satisfied today with forming the government, despite his knowledge that he is capable of that, but he does not accept to work within restrictions and conditions.
However, MP Qassem Hashem, a member of the Development and Liberation bloc, stressed that the nomination of former PM Saad Hariri is related to the strength of representation recorded by his parliamentary bloc on the one hand and that he is the most representative of the Sunni community on the other hand.
He pointed out that Hariri has experience in this field, and in my opinion, he should be in a leadership position because of his strength, and this is what happened with the position of the Presidency of the Republic and President Michel Aoun.
Secretary-General of Hezbollah had made a recent statement in which he accused the four former prime ministers of being participated, directly or indirectly, in worsening the political crisis in Lebanon.
Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri said that he was one of the first advocates for naming Prime Minister Hariri even before Mustafa Adib’s initiative, and he had shared this desire with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Follow the latest news on Google News
