Lebanon’s economic crisis will lead to chaos if left unchecked, Michel Moawad, leader of the Independence Movement and the son of former Lebanese President Rene Moawad, has told a local news agency.
For more than 15 years, Moawad campaigned for a sovereign and independent Lebanon. However, the country can “barely afford to wait for a new Parliament to begin tackling the worst economic crisis in its modern history,” he said.
“The cost of inaction will be tremendous both for ordinary Lebanese and the international community if Lebanon were to turn into a failed state,” Moawad further expressed to a local news agency.
Moawad was speaking from his residence in Baabda overlooking Beirut port, the site of a massive explosion in August which strained Lebanon’s already-battered economy. Moawad resigned from Parliament after the blast in protest of what he described as widespread corruption throughout the state.
He was joined by several independent MPs and members of the Kataeb party, another opposition group.
Since then, Moawad has called for a transitional government of independent experts to contain the crisis and prepare for parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2022.
But Moawad’s calls, like those of his opposition peers, are falling on deaf ears.
Once known for its vibrant banking sector, tourism industry and nightlife, more than half of Lebanon’s people are now in poverty.
Lebanon is still without a fully functioning government, and it is still not known what triggered the explosion at Beirut port; who owned the explosive chemicals stored there or why they were kept unsafely for six years at one of the region’s busiest ports, with the knowledge of the country’s top officials and security agencies.
