President of the National Dialogue Party, MP Fouad Makhzoumi, visited President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace to extend his greetings for the festive season. They discussed the situation in Lebanon and the region.
Following the meeting, Makhzoumi said the visit was intended to extend his greetings for the holidays and the New Year, expressing his hope that the year would bring prosperity to Lebanon.
He said their discussions covered the overall situation in the country, particularly the difficult economic, financial, and living conditions Lebanon was facing. He noted that the Lebanese people were looking for stability and a government of specialists that would meet their demands and restore the rights they had been denied for 30 years.
He stressed that Lebanon urgently needed a transitional rescue government whose foremost priority would be to halt the financial and economic deterioration and restore international confidence in Lebanon, particularly among donor countries, as quickly as possible.
The Banking and Economic Crisis
Makhzoumi said the economic situation could no longer be sustained and that confidence in the banking sector had been lost—a very serious development, particularly given that the banking sector had once been the main pillar of the Lebanese economy.
He said a large part of the responsibility lay with the financial engineering operations that had brought the country to this point, as well as with the Association of Banks, whose measures, he argued, violated the Code of Money and Credit.
He warned that the disregard for and mistreatment of small depositors would not go unanswered, stressing that the Lebanese people and the October 17 uprising would hold those responsible to account.
Makhzoumi called on Parliament to urgently pass an expedited law protecting the accounts of small depositors, who account for 86% of bank depositors, in order to reassure people that their savings would be protected.
He also stressed that it was unacceptable for Lebanon to fall behind on its financial obligations to the United Nations while simultaneously seeking support from the international community.
Finally, Makhzoumi condemned the caretaker government’s failure to fulfil the responsibilities assigned to it under the Constitution and the law. He said that a substantial share of the consequences of the crisis rested with that government.