Lebanon’s crisis deepens

BEIRUT — Lebanese politicians who have led their country into financial disaster are squabbling over who is to blame, stirring up old rivalries that may spell even deeper trouble ahead.

Lebanon faces its gravest threat since the 1975-90 civil war as its currency sinks, inflation spirals and protesters return to the streets, angered by an economic crisis made worse by a coronavirus shutdown.

Unrest this week in Sidon and Tripoli, where banks were torched and a demonstrator killed, is seen as a sign of what’s to come as poverty and unemployment soar. Prices of consumer goods have shot up 50 per cent since October.

The government is trying to finalise a rescue plan, perhaps as soon Thursday. Many hope this will be taken straight to the IMF, widely seen as Lebanon’s only source of vital financial aid, albeit with tough conditions attached. The plan must address huge gaps in the national finances including a projected $83 billion hole in the banking sector - an amount that will soon be equal to twice the size of the rapidly shrinking economy. How to divide the losses is one of the biggest problems ahead.

But while the government is backed by the pro-Iranian Shi’ite group Hezbollah and its Maronite Christian ally President Michel Aoun, it is opposed by important players in Lebanon’s sectarian politics: Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Aoun’s Maronite rival Samir Geagea.