BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A senior official from Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement says the United States and its agents are responsible for the deteriorating financial and economic crisis in the country.
“The ongoing economic turmoil, which the Lebanese nation is undergoing, is the outcome of several factors. It all started with the American project in September 2001, and seeks to protect the Israeli regime as its main objective,” Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Ahed news website quoted Sheikh Hassan al-Baghdadi, a member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, as saying.
He added, “When Americans failed to overthrow regional establishments and disintegrate them through wars, they once again resorted to economic sanctions and siege. The so-called October 17 Revolution was triggered by a bunch of corrupt elements under the supervision of the U.S. Embassy. It was the beginning of Lebanon’s financial collapse. The situation worsened as time went by and worried people about the future.”
The Hezbollah official stated that such a policy pushed Lebanon to the edge of an abyss, and prompted the Zionist regime presume Lebanon’s deterrence power would vanish in the wake of Lebanon’s turmoil.
Lebanon has been mired since late 2019 in a deep economic and financial crisis, exacerbated by a political deadlock.
The economic and financial crisis is the gravest threat to the country’s stability since the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
The crisis is mostly linked to the sanctions that the United States and its allies have imposed on Lebanon as well as foreign intervention in the Arab nation’s domestic affairs.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister announced on Friday his rejection of the Central Bank governor’s decision to lift fuel subsidies, Anadolu Agency reports.
In a statement, Hassan Diab said Riad Salameh’s decision “is against the law and does not take into account the reality of the deep living and social crisis.”
“The repercussions of the decision will be very serious,” Diab said, warning it would endanger the country’s future.
He also addressed a letter to Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni asking him to inform Salameh that his decision “violates the law which was issued by the House of Representatives … and contradicts the government’s policy of rationalizing support.”
Diab called for an emergency ministerial meeting to discuss the Central Bank governor’s decision.