Pressure in Lebanon's Central Bank governorship continues as the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, urges the First Deputy Governor, Wassim Mansouri, to resign before Salameh leaves his position.
This article was originally published in and translated by the Lebanese newspaper Nidaa Al-Watan.
Moreover, according to what sources told Nidaa Al-Watan, Berri threatens that Mansouri might not be accepted to manage the affairs at the Central Bank "unless everyone takes responsibility for legislating a necessity that allows the Central Bank to lend the state for several months from the remaining reserves or mandatory employment in the bank, which belongs to depositors."
Berri's pressure doesn't stop with Mansouri but also extends to the caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, with messages directed to Hezbollah to persuade the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, to have his bloc attend the required legislative session and vote according to the government's agreement with the deputy governors.
The sources express astonishment at Berri's position, as he "didn't accept Mansouri's suggestion to take over the governorship and implement the Monetary and Credit Law, as well as what was agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund regarding exchange rate liberalization and the cessation of the Central Bank's financing of the state."
The sources state, "Berri wants to entangle everyone in legislating a measure that aims to buy time while waiting for the developments in resolving the presidential impasse before the end of October." This entanglement includes anyone hindering the appointment of a new governor, such as Gebran Bassil and Hezbollah.
It was revealed Thursday that the deputy governors have temporarily withdrawn their resignation decision based on a "promise" from the Prime Minister after consultations with political forces, especially the Shiite duo, to prepare a draft law that allows the Central Bank to lend from the mandatory reserves between 600 and 800 million US dollars for several months, provided that the disbursement is rationed by the government.
The sources indicate that this promise is accompanied by a second "promise," secured by Hezbollah from Gebran Bassil, to vote in favor of the law's project. However, observers doubt Bassil's commitment to Berri.
The sources revealed that "once again, the Speaker of Parliament uses an entitlement from the powers of the executive authority to target opponents and attempt to corner them, and once again, Mikati finds himself alone in the field of conflicts, while the goal is to secure a national cover for the process of managing the transitional phase at the Central Bank."
The sources say that the deputy governors informed Mikati that they would assume responsibility based on the government's and parliament's commitment to legislation, the most prominent of which is the issuance of legislation that provides a legal cover for them to secure 200 million US dollars per month for three months, with the government reimbursing the full amount by the end of the current year.
It is worth noting that no sign indicates the possibility of approving reform legislation requested by the deputy governors (capital control, bank restructuring, addressing the financial gap, and increasing revenues in the 2023 budget).
In other words, "Berri is dragging everyone towards a temporary solution to buy more time, nothing more." As for "reformist" sources, "Lebanon, which has been dragging its crises for more than two decades, used to buy time in years, and today it buys it in months, and it will soon come to a point where it will seek to buy time in weeks and days before a major collision."
In a statement issued after the disruption of the Cabinet session due to lack of quorum, the Prime Minister stated that "the current phase requires everyone's cooperation to preserve relative financial and monetary stability and not subject it to upheaval. There is a national responsibility on all of us if a new governor for the Central Bank is not appointed."
He stressed that "the warnings expressed by the deputy governors in the statement they issued a few days ago are legitimate, and the plan they laid out aligns with the government's plan. The government will cooperate with the parliament to approve the necessary legislations to ensure the smooth functioning of institutions in this critical stage in Lebanon's history, according to the provisions specified in the Monetary and Credit Law."