Lebanon Loses Right to Vote at UN

Lebanon has lost its right to vote at the United Nations General Assembly after failing to pay its membership contribution for the last two years.

According to an official statement by the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, 146 member states paid their dues in full for the 2019 budget. Lebanon was not one of those states.

"And as of yesterday [Thursday], 10 Member States were in arrears and fall under the provisions of Article 19, and that’s Central African Republic, Comoros, Gambia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Tonga, Venezuela and Yemen,” Stephane Dujarric announced.

According to media reports, diplomatic and political efforts are underway between Lebanese officials and the U.N. to allow Lebanon extra time to fulfill its obligations.

Later on, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expats expressed discontent over the UN announcemnet and said in a statement that "on its part, Lebanon fulfilled all its duties within the legal deadline, and conducted reviews more than once with the relevant sides."

The Foreign Ministry considered that "regardless of who is responsible, Lebanon is affected, by this decision, at its state reputation, hoping that the issue will be solved as soon as possible."

Since last October, Lebanon is facing an acute political crisis with the continuous fail of politicians to form a government that would calm protests sweeping the country.

Though political elite has named an ex-education minister Hassan Diab as its next prime minister, with initial support of the Iran-backed Hizbollah paramilitary group, he hasn't got so far the approval or support of Sunni block led by ex-PM Saad Al-Hariry.