Lebanon: Ministers, Deputies Say Amending Rescue Plan Is Inevitable

Arab World

May 6th, 8:45am

Beirut - Mohammed Shukair

Lebanon's President Michel Aoun heads the first meeting of the new cabinet at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon January 22, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

The Lebanese government is expected to begin talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the coming days on the draft rescue plan, which was approved by the Cabinet last week. Ministerial and parliamentary sources said they expected the negotiations to be complex and lengthy, until reaching a unified financial and economic vision. They also stressed that amending the plan would be inevitable. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the sources noted that although the IMF has welcomed the government’s announcement, discussions over the plan would take several months and would require some amendments before the actual start of the implementation process. Underlining France’s role in pushing the Lebanese government to speed up the adoption of the rescue paper, the parliamentary and ministerial sources said that the IMF would have substantive observations that Lebanon should take seriously as the mandatory passage for assistance. Thus, aid, whether from the IMF or from the International Support Group, is closely linked to the need to reach a complete and irreversible agreement with the Fund, according to the sources. The same sources noted that the international community, through the IMF, would be a partner in supervising financial aid to stop the economic collapse and to prevent the random or selective use of the funds. The international community is concerned about the possibility of the Syrian regime benefiting from this aid through Hezbollah, which could use it to impose its control over the country, the sources explained. They revealed that the Lebanese import bill amounted to about $20 billion last year, while the volume of actual consumption reached $16 billion. The $4 billion-gap benefitted the Syrian regime, according to the sources, to secure some oil derivatives and raw materials.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2270201/lebanon-ministers-deputies-say-amending-rescue-plan-inevitable