BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese caretaker Hassan Diab threatened Saturday to suspend his duties to pressure politicians to form a new government, citing an incident in which consumers were fighting against milk to reflect the deplorable state of the economy.
Diab’s cabinet retired in late August. 4 Beirut port exploded which destroyed large areas of the capital. Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri was named in October but has since failed to form a new cabinet due to political closures between him and President Michel Aoun.
A continuing financial crisis, which erupted in 2019, has wiped out jobs, raised warnings about growing hungry and locked people out of their bank deposits. A new cabinet could implement reforms needed to boost billions of dollars of international support.
“If secession helps to create a cabinet I am ready to go, although it goes against my condemnation because it upsets the entire state and is detrimental to Lebanon,” Diab said in a televised speech.
“Isn’t the scramble for milk a sufficient incentive to overturn formalities and turn the edges out to form a government?” Diab said referring to the recent incident at a Beirut supermarket where customers were fighting over powdered milk.
Video of the square went viral on social media, leaving many people apprehensive about the state of economic crisis.
Groups of activists have been firing tires to block roads across the country on a day-to-day basis since Lebanon’s currency fell to a new low on Tuesday, including a population shocked by a recession. of the country.
The fall of the Lebanese pound, which fell to 10,000 to the dollar on Tuesday, was the last straw for many who have seen consumer goods prices such as diapers and grain see almost three times since the start of the financial crisis.
On Saturday demonstrators protested in front of the banking association, demanding access to their investments, and then walked to the parliament building in central Beirut to express their fears about the current economic conditions. shrinking.
“Social conditions are getting worse, financial conditions are putting a lot of pressure on the country, political situations are becoming increasingly complex,” Diab said in his speech.
“The country is facing major challenges that a normal government cannot meet without political consensus so how can a caretaker government address these challenges? “
Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Laila Bassam; Edited by Mark Heinrich and Pravin Char