Lebanon is a few days away from a "social explosion", caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday, calling on the international community to save the country.
Diab, in a speech after a meeting with several ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions in Beirut, also said his government could not re-start talks with the International Monetary Fund and only a new cabinet could do that.
"This government does not have the right to resume negotiations with the IMF to implement the recovery plan set by the cabinet, for this entails obligations on the next government that it may not endorse," the state-run National News Agency quoted Diab as saying.
Pointing to the conditions set by the international community to provide Lebanon with assistance, Diab said that “linking aid for Lebanon to the formation of a government largely endangers the lives of the Lebanese and the Lebanese entity.”
“The pressures exercised and the siege imposed on Lebanon do not affect the corrupt, but rather threaten the Lebanese people,” he said, pointing to the increasing number of Lebanese, mainly youths, who escape the crisis at home.
Lebanon has been grappling with an unprecedented economic and financial crisis since October 2019, exacerbated by the colossal Beirut port explosion in August last year, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
