First Cabinet session concluded

Lebanese Cabinet began its first session on Thursday with a moment of silence in mourning for the lives of the martyrs of the army and Internal Security Forces who fell in the Bekaa and Ouzai.

President Michel Aoun congratulated the government on gaining confidence, pointing out that everyone is required to work at a rapid pace in all the exceptional economic, financial, monetary, and banking conditions that we are living in.

Aoun talked about the financial meeting that was held today prior to the cabinet session, indicating that he discussed the financial and economic crisis and the current difficulties, as well as studying proposed solutions that will be approved at a later meeting.

Aoun asked ministers to start preparing the draft budget for 2021 in order to follow its path within the specified constitutional deadlines.

For his part, Prime Minister Hassan Diab asked the ministers to sign a pledge not to run in the parliamentary elections if they took place under the supervision of the current government, in line with the contents of the ministerial statement.

The ministers also signed, upon Diab’s request, a statement of the ministers’ movable and immovable properties, incomes and loans, and all the interest and direct or indirect benefit of the ministers in any company or project of any kind and disclosure of bank accounts in Lebanon and abroad.

Diab asked the ministers to prepare a file that includes urgent and necessary projects that are supposed to be presented during visits abroad or with Arab and foreign visitors when they visit Lebanon, as well as with donors, provided that these files are ready during the next week.

Diab presented the most prominent aspects of the financial and economic meeting and the options available to address the current situation, provided that experts from the International Monetary Fund and international legal and economic experts would be used to study these options in preparation for the government to take the appropriate decision.

The Cabinet has taken a decision to strengthen the capacities of the Ministry of Health in the measures it takes to prevent the Corona epidemic.

After the session, the Minister of Agriculture said: "We reduced the import of potatoes from Egypt to 35,000 tons and reduced the import deadline until March 18th."