President of the National Dialogue Party, MP Fouad Makhzoumi, visited the Grand Mufti of the Republic, His Eminence Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, at Dar Al-Fatwa, accompanied by Makhzoumi Foundation Director General Samer Safah and Marketing Director Marwan Sabban. During the meeting, they discussed matters concerning Dar Al-Fatwa and the general situation in the country.
Makhzoumi said the visit was to congratulate His Eminence on the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan, expressing his hope that it would bring goodness and blessings to the Lebanese people, who do not deserve the crises being inflicted upon them. He said he had discussed the issue of subsidies with His Eminence, amid reports that they would be lifted within a month. He questioned whether the caretaker government was prepared for this step and whether it and Parliament could provide an alternative in the form of a credit card.
He noted that the World Bank was currently prepared to provide Lebanon with a $246 million loan, but questioned whether Parliament was considering authorizing the government to sign the loan agreement, particularly since the funds were not being provided as a grant to Lebanon. He pointed out that political forces were doing everything possible to prearrange the distribution of the loan according to their own preferences before the World Bank could intervene in the allocation process.
The discussion also touched on what Makhzoumi described as a judicial farce. He noted that judges holding senior positions in the state were politicized and that all their positions were politicized as well. Lebanon’s image in the eyes of the international community was continuing to deteriorate because of such practices, which could negatively affect any efforts to attract investment and investors. He expressed his opposition to the judiciary being politicized and acting on demand, urging the judicial community to continue addressing corruption cases regardless of whether there had been procedural errors in initiating them.
Regarding the government formation process, Makhzoumi said that each party was attempting to blame the other for the delays and obstruction. He pointed out that the fundamental problem lay in Hezbollah’s presence and its weapons outside Lebanese territory. He called on all parties to act as Lebanese political parties within Lebanon and to stop interfering in the affairs of other countries, including matters related to their national security or economies, so that Lebanon could build a country to which donor nations would have no objections.
He renewed his call for the formation of an independent government made up of individuals from outside the previous political establishment, which had brought the country to ruin.