Closing banks will lead to social unrest and will eliminate all financial transactions and transfers that come from outside Lebanon, especially from expatriates to their families.
Beirut – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”: It seems that the judicial war opened by the Appeals Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghada Aoun, on behalf of the Covenant and the Free Patriotic Movement against the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, and the Lebanese banks, is similar to the wars previously announced by General Michel Aoun, which led to the destruction of Christian areas. First, with the war of liberation announced by the general against the Syrian army on March 14, 1988, and then followed by the war of abolition against the Lebanese forces in 1990. The result was the weakening of the Christian presence in the country and the entry of the Syrian army into the presidential palace and the Baabda and Matn regions, and Aoun was exiled and later imprisoned the head of the forces Samir Geagea.
And if many Christians applauded General Aoun when he declared the two wars and considered that he wanted to build a state, liberate the country and fix the situation, before they discovered, after his election as president, that actions did not match words and that he turned against the slogans of liberation and ending the state, then some Christians and non-Christians are applauding the judicial procedures today. Against the governor of the Central Bank and against the banks, considering them to be reformist and will return to them their deposits and rid them of symbols of corruption. But it will not take long for them to discover that such measures, which Prime Minister Najib Mikati describes as “populist and police,” will lead them to financial and economic hell, where is the current suffocating crisis, because hitting the reputation of the banking sector, even if it bears responsibility somewhere for the financial crisis, will cause a crisis With correspondent banks abroad, and because the closure of banks will lead to social unrest and will eliminate all financial transactions and transfers that come from outside Lebanon, especially from Lebanese expatriates to their families, and it will not return to depositors their money because it is just a war to settle political accounts in an electoral phase. The question is, in the event the banks are closed, how do depositors manage their exchange operations, whether in hospitals, pharmacies, gas stations and supermarkets? How do employees withdraw their salaries?
It is no longer a secret that the President of the Republic is trying with all his might to change the governor of the Banque du Liban before the end of his term and replace him with a person loyal to him for the next six years. From here, this fierce attack against Riad Salameh is understood, preventing him from traveling and seizing his real estate and cars, and then arresting his brother, Raja, on a ready-made charge of whitewashing. Money and illegal enrichment, and then summoning the central bank governor to an interrogation session tomorrow, Monday, in light of negotiations taking place between the Lebanese government and the International Monetary Fund.
Despite the repeated denials of the President of the Republic and his son-in-law, Deputy Gebran Bassil, that they do not interfere in the work of the judiciary, they proceed from the fact that the success of the judicial procedures and the subjugation of Salama and the banks will turn them into popular heroes. The tension, unrest, and closure of the banks led to the postponement of the elections and the removal of the bitter cup that the Covenant would drink by losing about half of its parliamentary bloc.
While waiting for the truth of the accusations to be clarified and for the allegations not to be arbitrary and devoid of any legal document or basis, as was revealed in the fraudulent fuel file and others after it was too late, and that some people would not pay their lives for oppression, maliciousness and defamation, as happened with the General Director of the Motaktiv Banking Corporation, Michel Mottif, who is the publisher of a newspaper. Nidaa Al-Watan” strongly opposed to the Covenant and Hezbollah, it seems that Judge Ghada Aoun, who relies on unlimited support from the President of the Republic and his movement, is not about to respond to any mechanism that the government intends to put in place for judicial dealings with banks, or that it is in the process of accepting to withdraw the file from its hand, and it anticipates the cabinet session. By saying, “I mean, we have to give them the arch of the court. They sit in our shop and decide on our behalf how the law is applied.” Like General Aoun, who rebelled against legitimacy decisions in 1989, the judge called on “Lebanese judges to rise up for their dignity and the rule of law to protect the weak and justice.” While Prime Minister Najib Mikati denied “protecting the banking sector or the governor of the Banque du Liban, but rather protecting institutions, orderly work and maintaining balances in the country,” and referred to assigning the Minister of Justice to address the causes of any defect, stressing that “his resignation is out of the question before the elections.”
Simultaneously, the country seems to be in a race between the parliamentary elections and the chaos that may result from any continuation of the judicial war on banks or any emergence of malicious developments or measures that poison the atmosphere and stir instincts. The agenda of the Free Patriotic Movement appears different from that of Hezbollah, which polls indicate that it is not only comfortable with its situation in its Shiite environment, but is preparing to penetrate the Sunni and Druze arena and provide its Christian Aounist ally with oxygen, which means that the party has become enthusiastic about the elections to prove its popularity and to cross through Democratic entitlement to complete his hegemony over the country. This means that after the elections, Hezbollah will be able to impose its will on the government and governments, helped by the reluctance of the Sunni leaders from the first rank to run in the parliamentary elections. And in the event that Hezbollah regains the majority again, it will disrupt the presidential elections until the arrival of a president very similar to the current president, Michel Aoun, which means the continuation of the state of collapse in Lebanon and attempts to isolate it from its Arab surroundings, and the loss of the chance of salvation with the end of this era.
Therefore, efforts are intensified to restore the connection between the sovereign forces after their separation. President Fouad Siniora is striving to gather what is possible in the Sunni arena and prevent Hezbollah from penetrating this arena. He is also striving to encourage an alliance with the Progressive Socialist Party and the Lebanese Forces in mixed circles, without being In the process of carrying out a coup against Prime Minister Saad Hariri, when he tweeted after Hariri’s reluctance, “I am with you despite your decision, and I am with you against their will.” He meant that he is with Hariri, but he does not agree with him on this decision, and that he is with him as well, despite those who plot against him.
Like Siniora, former allies of the March 14 forces are trying to respond to Hezbollah, which announced that it is running in the elections as the July war, by calling for it to be fought as an independence uprising.