Kanaan confirms he is against trapping deposits

 

However, The French, American, Egyptian, Qatari, and Saudi diplomatic delegations stressed that "the Lebanese themselves hold the key to the solution and should not expect any help from abroad as long as the situation remains the same in terms of a presidential vacancy, an institutional vacuum, and failure to carry out reforms."

They also emphasized that the necessity to hasten the election of a president was clearly and directly in focus, although they avoided recommending any candidate. 

Amid all the recent developments, the lira exchange rate continued to collapse and reached nearly LBP 70,000 against the US dollar in the black market. And may increase more as a result of the turmoil in the political, banking, and judicial systems.

This came simultaneously with pressure from the security services, the financial public prosecutor, Judge Ali Ibrahim, and the Public Prosecutor of Cassation, Judge Oweidat, to stop speculators. 

However, the banks started to suffer from the recent divisions within the Banks Association over complete closure due to threats not to exaggerate the escalation for fear of striking red lines that would cause politicians and judges to turn against the entire banking sector.

The political forces were also divided at the legislative level over the "necessity session," which may lead to its cancelation or suspension. At the same time, banks have exaggerated their impatience for the Capital Control law to be adopted, which stops the effects of depositors' cases against banks.

In this context, the Strong Lebanon bloc, like all other blocs that felt great embarrassment in front of the growing anger of depositors, decided to reject the proposed project by a majority within the ranks of the bloc.

In response to a question about his position on the legislative session and the proposed formula, the Finance and budget committee head Ibrahim Kanaan revealed that he has not been with the Capital Control formula referred by the government from day one.

He also mentioned that he had expressed opposition and had yet to vote on it in the joint committees.

Kanaan stressed that the Capital Control, after three years of collapse, must be presented to the General Assembly in conjunction with the completion of the law related to addressing the financial gap and the bank restructuring law - as contained in the body of the report issued by the joint committees - so that the trapped deposits of the Lebanese will not be permanent.

As for the legislative session, Kanaan considered that "a priority remains, nationally and constitutionally, for electing a president," explaining that from the president, we can reconstitute the authority through an entirely legitimate government that completes with the new president the convening of constitutional institutions and legislates their meetings and work, especially the legislative and governmental ones.