Lebanon Needs Urgent Help, Analysts Say

AMMAN, JORDAN - The International Monetary Fund says Lebanon won’t pull itself out of its economic crisis until a new government is formed to start long-stalled reforms. But Lebanese analysts say they are being held hostage by a corrupt political class and need outside help to break the logjam to create conditions that bring the country back from the brink. One suggestion is to set up a temporary United Nations trusteeship council for Lebanon to get the country back on its feet.

By defaulting on its $1.2 billion Eurobond debt last year, Lebanon’s currency crashed and its economy shrank by 25 percent. Jihad Azour, head of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East department told Reuters that addressing Lebanon’s dire economic crisis now “requires a comprehensive approach” with multiple financial and governance reforms. He warned that “in (the) absence of a new government that can lead this transformation, it’s very difficult to expect that the situation will in itself improve.” But Professor Habib Malik of the Lebanese American University told VOA that the Lebanese people are caught in a vice between the political warlords and the de-facto power, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.